#I’m sure she’d be so proud to see how a younger version of her character is being portrayed | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ootori-sibs · 3 years

Text

Through the eyes of the patriarch

1 - The proposal

Tw: death (mentioned) (not main character)

Yoshio Ootori had four children, one daughter and three sons. All of his children were wonderful, he was so very proud of them all. High society from all of the world could see how the Ootori children were a cut above the rest, they were Yoshio's magnum opus, his life's work. His company was important to him, of course it was- but his children were what he was most proud of.

Yuuichi, his eldest son, the dark prince. He was the sweetheart of high society and the most intelligent young man Yoshio had ever known. He'd gotten through medical school early and taken up a position as Yoshio's right hand man fairly quickly. He was the heir to both the company and the Ootori name, the young man would eventually become patriarch of the Ootori family and Yoshio couldn't be prouder. He was an expert when it came to getting people on his side and didn't even need to turn to blackmail or any sorts of things like that- despite being more than capable of doing so.

Fiyumi was his darling daughter, she had a husband now and was happily providing Yoshio with grandchildren now. Yoshio deeply regretted the way he'd treated her, and was working on making that relationship better. She was a wonderful young woman, looking so much like her mother and having the same spitfire attitude. She was just as intelligent as her brothers; having gone through school with straight A grades and proceeding to get qualified to practice as a nurse- even after all that, she was now considering becoming a surgeon as well. On top of being shockingly intelligent and determined, she was exceedingly compassionate. Yoshio could remember seeing her rush to her youngest brother's side at a moment's notice, comforting him over the smallest mishap… he couldn't say it hadn't made him feel inferior. As their father, wasn't that supposed to be his job? Although he supposed that job belonged to their late mother, and without her, Fiyumi seemed to have taken a maternal role in little Kyoya's life. It was incredible how she'd done that, pushing away any professional help offered and still managing to get straight As all throughout school.

Akito was the third child, second son and the boy you would later become Yuuichi's right hand man. Still in university, the boy was just as intelligent as his elders, although he lacked both common sense and manners. It was clear the boy was rebelling, because as much as he still got perfect grades, he liked to attend parties with the commoners at his university, and openly drink on top of that. Yoshio was… disapproving but definitely not disappointed, as long as Akito kept his grades up- then Yoshio's only qualm would be one of health and image. The Ootori's had always had issues with anger, but Akito seemed to inherit the brunt of it, flying off the handle at the smallest thing. Yoshio had provided him with counselling, and it definitely worked but he still could get a little violent when violence really wasn't called for. Yoshio was, however, incredibly proud of how far he'd grown since starting counselling at age nine.

Then, there was Kyoya. The youngest, the baby of the family, the shadow, the black sheep of the family. Kyoya was… different from his brothers, Yoshio couldn't quite put his finger on why. Kyoya got the same perfect grades as his siblings, he was the exact same master manipulator as his brothers, he even looked the same as his brothers. Maybe it was that little club Kyoya helped run, Yoshio definitely didn't approve of it; all that running about and serving ladies, flirting with them no less! It was more or less a more innocent version of offering services, and Yoshio could not stand for his son participating in such behaviour. Although… Kyoya had made friends, that was something the boy had always struggled with. Yoshio was proud of that at least, not to mention Kyoya was showing off his financial prowess, he was the only thing keeping that damned club afloat. It was impressive, but even more impressive was the way Kyoya had snatched the company from under his feet, then thrown it right back in his face. Yoshio had never been prouder of Kyoya then the moment he'd realised Kyoya had been the one to do that to him, that Kyoya had found something more important than the family company.

"How do you do it? You're so affectionate towards your son, I can't even seem to smile at mine."

A laugh, Souh had chuckled at him, pouring another glass of wine for himself, "you flatter me Yoshio, I'm not half as affectionate with Tamaki as you seem to think. I mean, I couldn't even let him call me father at the festival!"

"Well you weren't there as his father, you were there to be the chairman, you couldn't waste your time playing happy families when you had the entire festival to watch over."

The laughter stopped, Yuzuru took a sip of wine before putting the glass down. He frowned, staring at the newton's cradle on Yoshio's desk, "listen, do you hear yourself speak? Spending time with your children isn't wasting it, they shouldn't be second to your job."

"I know that, I'm not an idiot. I just think if you were on duty then there's nothing wrong with being a little more professional than you would usually. My children understand they need to behave professionally when we're networking, isn't the festival just a networking event after all?"

Yuzuru nods thoughtfully, tilting the wineglass slightly, watching the liquid swirl. Yoshio quietly took a sip of his whiskey, he'd always been more of a drinker then Souh. "I suppose you're right, but I still think that your problem is acting too professionally, I don't think I've ever seen you do anything casual. I mean, even right now, when we're just relaxing, we're both still wearing suits and you haven't even taken your jacket off nor loosened your tie."

"I prefer it tight." Yoshio glanced away, understanding that this wasn't the point, he'd seen it in all his children. The lack of ability to turn off 'business mode', staying fully professional constantly. None of them ever learnt how to be casual, and Yoshio supposed that was his fault. To be fair to him, though, he'd never learnt it himself, although maybe he shouldn't have tried to imitate his own parents' parenting strategy if it had turned out the villain of high society he was. Although he supposed at least part of the burden had fallen to his wife, that woman had failed just as much as he had. It was merely Yoshio's duty to pick up the pieces, alone.

"Old friend… you haven't changed a bit have you?" Yuzuru reached over, putting a hand on Yoshio's shoulder, Yoshio had to bite back the instinct to flinch back, wondering if his children were the same. "They aren't you, remember that Yoshio, they have different needs and are in a different situation then you were. They don't have your parents to raise them, you know what they do have?"

"What..?"

"They have you, Yoshio. You're their father, you need to support them. What were you like at each of their ages? They're not like you are they?"

"No," Yoshio finally admitted, sighing, "they're not, they're so much better." His children were so much better people then he was, they had relationships that exceeded mere business deals, they could give without expecting anything in return. They were… people, something Yoshio had always failed to be.

"I wouldn't say that, I'd say they're just different people… do you remember being each of their ages?"

He nodded, finishing his whiskey and pouring a second glass. Yuzuru smiled at that, "remember what you wanted more then anything?"

Yoshio recalled Yuuichi's determination to gain more and power sway over the company and smiled fondly, "power…" he remembered Fiyumi's care and affection to everyone she met, the way she worked so hard to be what everyone wanted, "perfection…" then there was Akito, the one who rebelled and was quite clear in his attempt to piss Yoshio off, "freedom…" was that not what he wanted? To be apart from the family? Finally, there was Kyoya, and Yoshio wasn't sure of what Kyoya wanted at all, "..." he sighed, downing his glass of whiskey in one. "I don't know what they want, they're kids, they don't know either."

Yuzuru frowned, crossing his arms, "Yoshio," his tone was stern, no one had taken that tone with him since he was a child, it certainly made him sit up, "you can't just give up because you don't understand what your kids need. I know what Tamaki wants, and I know he's a lot more open then your children, but you know what Tamaki also is? He's best friends with Kyoya, I can tell you what your youngest wants." He sipped his wine, observing Yoshio's shock, and Yoshio was sure as hell shocked. How hadn't he thought of that? He supposed he hadn't assumed Kyoya would ever be so open with anyone. Yuzuru spoke again, placing the wine glass down, "Kyoya wants your praise and affection, that's all he's ever wanted. It's quite obvious, it's what any child would want from their father. Didn't you want that from your own parents when you were younger?"

"I try not to reminisce, it wastes time." He glanced away, "I don't believe the boy needs affection, he's seventeen. He should be focused on his studies," he paused, realising they were going in circles, he sighed, "even if you were right, he's a little too old for that now, isn't he? What am I supposed to do?"

"Well you should at least tell him you're proud of him."

"If I say that then he'll get lazy, he'll have nothing to work for."

"If you think that your praise is your son's only motivator, then you're more conceited then I thought." Yoshio had never heard Souh sound so cruel before, it almost made him sound like Shizue. He sighed, surprised by how tough his friend was being, but understanding why. Yuzuru was right, what Yoshio had said was incredibly self centered, and Yoshio already knew Kyoya had found something he cared about more. What Yoshio was more worried about, was that he had no idea how to express how much he loved his son.

"My mistake, that wasn't the correct thing to say." He admitted his fault, staring into the bottle of whiskey, watching the liquid sparkle in the light. "How would you recommend I go about it?"

"Just show him you've been thinking about him; maybe get the cooks to make his favourite food if you've noticed him looking extra tired, you could buy him something if you see it and think of him, you could ask him how school's going or complement his abilities, all you really have to do is care about him."

Yoshio nodded, understanding now, "so, all I have to do is give him attention really?" He hums in thought, "I have been considering finding him a wife, everyone else his age has a fiancée by now."

Well not everyone, but Yoshio had always considered that the best way for Kyoya to be useful, not to mention one of Kyoya's best friends from elementary was engaged by age five- Yoshio could recall Kyoya telling him how disgusting it was that his friend had a girlfriend- kids were so cute with what they found gross.

"A wife?" Yuzuru raised an eyebrow, "now Yoshio, you know I hate to make an assumption, but are you sure he's of that persuasion?"

"What do you mean?" Yoshio frowned, looking at his friend in confusion, he didn't quite understand what Yuzuru was getting at.

"I thought he was, you know…" he held up his hand, his wrist going limp, Yoshio just stared at him blankly, what on earth..? Yuzuru continued, "you know... playing for the other team? A friend of Dorothy?"

"Who's Dorothy?"

Souh sighed, "gay, Yoshio, your son is gay."

"Gay? As in homosexual?" Yoshio didn't think he'd ever met any of them, he supposed that it would explain the strange difference between Kyoya and the other children. It was a strange thing to think about, that his child was so different from himself. "I suppose I'll have to find him a husband then," it wasn't like Yoshio had any issues with it, he was just a little surprised.

"Well I'm not certain," Yuzuru clarified, ever the man to jump to conclusions, "I just, the way he looks at Tamaki…" he trailed off, clearly recalling something. Yoshio thought about that, Kyoya had risked doing something that he would disapprove of- and Kyoya certainly wasn't like Akito… was it because of the Souh child? As much as he allied himself with Yuzuru, Yoshio didn't trust that Tamaki boy as far as he could throw him- and Yoshio couldn't throw for shit. "Oh!" Yuzuru snapped him out of his thoughts with that exclamation, "Yoshio! I've just had the most wonderous idea!"

Huh? Oh. Oh no. "Absolutely not." Yoshio knew exactly what Yuzuru was thinking and he had to put his foot down, crossing his arms and frowning.

"Why not? Tamaki's bi."

"You've seen the kind of club your son thinks is acceptable. No offence Yuzuru but your son is definitely a bad influence on Kyoya. I cannot imagine him being loyal, or respectful for that matter."

Yuzuru seemed offended at that, "Yoshio! My boy hasn't done anything wrong! There's nothing wrong with a little harmless conversation, it's like social networking but for kiddies!"

"The children are more than capable of networking like normal people, your son has been seducing every girl in that school, I'm not letting him turn his romancer eyes towards my youngest." He turned away from Yuzuru, sighing quite heavily.

"Tamaki isn't like that!" Yuzuru seemed determined to defend the boy, Yoshio could respect that he supposed, "if you dislike my son so much, why did you tell Kyoya to befriend him?"

"Business relations." It was simple, wasn't it? It made sense for children of powerful businesses to befriend each other, it was more effective than charming the adults- though Yoshio supposed he'd call Yuzuru a friend at this point.

"And you think it'll make for good business relations to insult my heir like that?"

"I'm not insulting him, don't take everything so personally, Yuzuru. I was merely expressing my concern, I don't want Kyoya to get hurt, he's surprisingly fragile you know."

"Fragile..?"

"You should have seen him after his mother's funeral; crying, screaming, he bit me twice… then he refused to eat, he barely slept…" Yoshio frowned, the memories of his tiny son, Kyoya had only been seven at the time, but still… "he didn't understand the situation… he's always been fragile."

"Yoshio…" Yuzuru's tone had become soft, slow, Yoshio hadn't heard a tone like that in a long time. He realised that this was the first time he'd brought up his wife's death to anyone outside of the topmost members of the Black Onion squad. The self defense mechanisms kicked in and Yoshioed tenses up, shooting back a soul-shattering glare at poor Souh.

"Don't you dare patronise me, Souh."

Yuzuru made a sound not unlike a kicked hound, shrinking back into his seat and finishing his glass of wine. He put the glass down and sighed, muttering to himself, "still a sore subject, alright then…" he offered a hesitant smile, and Yoshio felt what must have been a pang of guilt, maybe, "do you feel better now, did that help?"

...it had actually, Yoshio realised he felt a lot more relaxed now… huh. He sighed, nodding, not wanting to speak. Yuzuru smiled, he was incredibly patient and Yoshio respected the hell out of that. "So, we've discussed your doubts about Tamaki, I don't really have any doubts about Kyoya other then the fact that he might murder everyone in their sleep- although that mostly due to the good ol' Ootori brand thousand yard glare- which is like a thousand yard stare but evil." He laughed at his joke, Yoshio hadn't been aware of this glare that apparently the entire family had- he wondered how many people they'd unintentionally terrified like that…

"But yeah! We've gone over the cons, how about the pros, because there is a lot."

"Hm," Yoshio nodded, agreeing, "business relations for one, but also they're already friends, it would be convenient."

"Very!" Yuzuru nodded along, smiling, "and I'm telling you, Yoshio, I'm telling you that Kyoya absolutely has a crush on my boy, it's the most adorable thing I swear. The way he looks at him? I don't think Tamaki's even noticed- you'll be doing Kyoya a favour."

Well he's right, Kyoya would never risk such good business relations for his own feelings, Yoshio could admit that it may have been his fault for drilling such importance of relations into the boy. "I suppose you're correct, it seems like a perfectly good option," Yuzuru seemed quite happy at that statement, but Yoshio was in no way finished, "however, I will be setting some adamantine ground rules and if not I then his brothers. Are we in agreement, Souh?"

Yuzuru was grinning now, "of course Ootori, my old friend. This is one of our best ideas yet," he held out a hand for Yoshio to shake, composing himself into a more professional state of posture, "is this a deal, Ootori? Am I making a deal with the devil here?"

Oh, oh Yoshio loved it when people referred to him as the devil, it made him feel so powerful, and like his own father. He often wondered if that was how his children thought about him. He took Yuzuru's hand shake, a smile playing on his own lips- of course he was still himself, so it was more of a sneer, but Yuzuru would understand. "Better the devil you know, Souh."

#ouran high school host club #tamakyo #yoshio ootori #yuzuru souh

17 notes · View notes

farouchelyoptimistic · 4 years

Text

MoonMoon: Tadpole

Gang Tae releases a soft grunt as he stretches his arms, reaching over the other side of the bed. When he feels it empty, he opens his eyes. Brows furrowing as he scans the room. He slides his legs off the bed, standing up as a yawn escapes his mouth. Scratching the back of his nape, he opens the curtains, the morning sunlight seeping through the massive floor to ceiling windows of their room in their luxurious Seoul penthouse.

Moon Young had insisted on moving to the city when he started attending university. It took him a while to finally convince her to get comfortable with the idea of him going back to school. Of course, she was totally against it, reminding him about the ants that would so desperately follow him around. But after days of lengthy conversations and pleading, he had finally managed to get her to agree. She was slowly learning to understand other people's emotions, and if there's one person out there whose emotions she greatly understood, it was Gang Tae's.

She knew no matter how much she protested, he was still going to do it. She was aware it was a dream he so wanted to achieve, and fully knowing how many dreams he had given up upon during the entirety of his life, it was the least she could do for him. So after a few days of sulking and trying to convince him otherwise, she finally says yes.

But Moon Young being Moon Young, if her boyfriend was going to go back to school, he had to go to the best university, because that's what he deserved. Moving back to Seoul was a huge decision, but they both knew it benefited everyone. He was going to a great university there, she had started to write more books ever since Finding the Real Face became a huge hit, and they were closer to Sang Tae who was working under Mr. Lee's company.

They had wanted to live with him in their penthouse, but he enjoyed so much of his independence that he no longer wanted to share a room with his little brother and have bicker-filled conversations with his younger sister over breakfast. He now lives in a posh hotel room, just around the corner from Mr. Lee's company.

On weekends, they would take long drives back to Songjin City, sometimes with Sang Tae if he wasn't too busy, to visit the family they left behind. Sundeuk, now their official fake real mom, would whip up heaps of food for her fake real children. She loved how much her house filled with warmth and happiness whenever everyone was visiting. Especially when Sang Tae tagged along with Sang In because it always made Ju Ri happy.

"Ko Moon Young?" He calls out. Oddly so, she was no longer in bed. It slightly bothered him because she never wakes up before him. She enjoyed her sleep, cherished it to core. He was lucky all his classes in the past four years weren't scheduled too early to have him leaving before she woke up. It would have been disastrous of epic proportions.

"Moon Young-ah?" He was about to go out when he hears shuffling in the bathroom followed by a bountiful wave of cursing.

Cautiously opening the bathroom door, he basically dashes to her side when he sees her sprawled on the bathroom floor, wretching over the toilet bowl. Her black nightgown was scattered around her, her long hair cascading over her shoulders.

"Ko Moon Young! Kinchana?" He stands behind her, gathering her hair in his hand as he rubbed circles around her back.

"Aish. I told you those dumplings we had last night seemed a little weird." She crouches over and empties her already empty stomach again. When she finishes, she slams her hand on the floor, another wave of cursing escaping her mouth si early in the morning.

"Go away. I don't want you to see my vomit. Nobody looks pretty after wretching for an hour." She tries to push him away but he doesn't move an inch. He only chuckles, reaching over the sink to drench a small towel with some water.

"Ani. You're always beautiful." He smiles, wiping the side of her lips. She tries to glare at him, but she couldn't hide the coy smile that slowly surfaced on her lips. She lets out a small breath, leaning back against his chest, making fall back to sit on the floor with her.

He lets out a small smile, encasing her with his arms. He marvels at her small face as she closes her eyes, her skin smooth and bouncy. Tilting his head, he smiles wider at the sight of the elegance if her beauty, enticing, so caotivating. For someone who just wretched for an hour, she really did look beautiful still. He often thought to himself how he managed to resist her charms for so long when now he could barely stop himself from looking at her.

"You're staring at me like a love stuck fool again." She opens her eyes and smiles at him. He chuckles, bringing his hand over to caress her head. Living with her in this penthouse for the last four years really paved the way for the both of them to truly get to know each other. It was safe to say they were masters of each other now.

There was barely much to know more about Moon Young since she was basically a very open book. Mostly, Gang Tae just learned new ways to sate her, calm her down on occasional days she feels like setting the world on fire. Despite her wondrous character development, she was still Moon Young, and that comes along with all the temper and impulsivity and all the jealousy that comes with him having female classmates.

His personal favorite was to wrap his arms around her from behind. Initially she'd try to pry her way out, but immediately calms down once he presses a kiss on her neck. It works like magic. Not only does it calm her down in a second, it also puts both of them in a very good mood.

Moon Young on the other hand learned quite a handful with Gang Tae living under the same roof with her, especially since sleeping in the same room together. All those years of repressing himself, he was finally showing his true colors. She especially loved it when he got a little clingy on some days, demanding for some attention whenever she got too focused in writing her book. She loved clingy Gang Tae as much as she loved the sly fox version of him.

"Aish. My damn head freaking hurts." She grumbles as Gang Tae slowly helps her up. He only sighs, a small smile at the amount of cursing she was able to fit in one sentence this early in the morning.

"Maybe we should just stay home today, huh? Hyung can go with Mr. Lee. You look a little pale, I'm sure they would understand if we can't go today." He suggests, placing a hand on the small of her back as they walk out of the bathroom.

"Ani. We're going to invite them to your graduation, of course we have to go there. You're acting like you don't know who I am, indigestion and a small headache is not going to stop me. Plus, I want to eat real fake omma's food. I'm sick of your under seasoned side dishes."

He laughs, nodding his head. He caresses the top of her head again.

"Kure. Go have a warm shower then. It'll help with your headache." He opens the bathroom door again, ushering her inside. Backing away, she grabs hold of his shirt, stopping him.

"You're not joining me?" She gives him an all too innocent look, tugging in his shirt. He gives her a serious look, taking hold of her hand as he leans in to press a kiss on her forehead. She takes her hand off of him.

"I'm going to make breakfast." He whispers, gently pushing her in, closing the door with a ridiculous coy smile. He shakes his head, he almost wanted to consider.

They picked up Sang Tae with Mr. Lee and Seungjae following right behind them. It had been the usual setup every weekend drive back home. Sang Tae was routinely excited with the long drive, he always is. He looked forward to playing with his bestie, both of them giving Gang Tae a mild headache at some point in the trip. But this time, Sang Tae was a tad bit disappointed, bored even, because his bestie was mostly asleep the entire trip. Gang Tae had instructed him not to wake her up since she wasn't feeling well. He deliberately wanted to bond, but being a big brother meant to let his sick sister rest.

"How was the trip?" Sundeuk welcomes her favorite guests, wrapping Sang Tae in a warm hug while Mr. Lee directly glides towards Ju Ri. Jae Su immediately inches closer to Seungjae, sharing knowing glances with their budding romance.

The house was immediately filled with warm laughter and excited greetings. It felt like it brightened up in just a matter of seconds.

"It-it, it was was good. B-but, boring. It was boring. It was boring because my bestie was asleep the entire trip. Sh-she never falls asleep, she always plays with me. But this time she was sleeping. Gang Tae said she was a little sick, so I let her sleep." Their fake real mom nods her head, proud at Sang Tae's newfound considerations. She nods her head, smiling at she patted his shoulders.

"That's right. Good job." She muses.

"Yes, yes. I did a good job. She woke up in the middle of the trip because she had to vomit, so we had to stop at the side of the road. It would have smelled bad if she vomited in the car. It would have also cost money, because her car, her car is expensive. It's expensive." Sang Tae continues to ramble, making Moon Young roll her eyes. Why on earth is he telling everyone of her demise, she thought.

"Oh? Let me see her." She cranes her neck, eyes growing wide at the sight Ko Moon Young's pale, yet still beautiful face. "Aigoo! You look pale, Moon Young-ah." She holds her arms, squeezing them comfortably. "Kinchana?"

She nods her head, smiling warmly at the closest thing she now has for a mother. Her heart flutters when the fairly old woman's hand reaches for her face.

"You're probably hungry. Come on, come on, let's eat. Hurry everyone." She links her arm around Moon Young's, leading her to the table where all the food was served.

"Wait! Before anything else, "She turns back around, eyeing Gang Tae who was following close. "I believe congratulations are in order! Congratulations on the graduation, Gang Tae-ah!"

Gang Tae gets enveloped by a number of warm arms, hugging and squeezing him. Accolades filled the room, making him smile. He thanks each one of them, a huge smile on his face. His eyes curve into thin lines as he catches Moon Young standing by the corner, watching him with a huge smile on her face. She was proud of him, proud beyond measure.

"Now let's eat!" The homeowner says, dragging everyone towards the table. Gang Tae moves over to Moon Young, wrapping his arm around her waist. He sits her down on her usual spot in the table, taking the seat beside her. Automatically, he gets her a bowl of overflowing rice and a bountiful amount of side dishes.

"Here you go." He doesn't wait for her to curse at the fact she still can't use the chopsticks with eggs and gets a few for her, placing them on her bowl.

Scooping a spoonful, she stops midway when she takes a whiff of the smell. For some reason, it didn't smell the same way. It smelled horrible, making her insides feel stuffy.

"Aish. Why the hell do these smell weird?" She complains, eyeing them in a disgusted way. Gang Tae turns to her, sniffing the dish.

"Ani. They smell the same as usual, Moon Young. Just go ahead and eat them." He rubs her shoulder.

She shrugs, face still distorted. She reluctantly takes the spoon back and eats. As soon as flavor spread all over her mouth, her stomach starts churning. The disgusting smell only amplified, and she felt like she was getting a taste of it. Just like this morning, she legitimately felt the same way her stomach started to push its contents upward.

Slamming the cutlery on the table, she makes everyone stop, turning their heads toward her. She tries to stabilize her breathing, trying to calm her stomach, but the contents of her stomach, of what's left of it, started to rise until she could basically taste it on her throat.

She abruptly pushes back her chair, standing up and running to the sink nearby. As soon as she crouched down, she starts to hurl.

It took everyone a second, before they all stood up, running towards her. Sundeuk and Gang Tae were quick to her side, both rubbing her back as Gang Tae once again gathers her hair in his hnads.

"Kinchana?" Gang Tae asks her as she calms down, taking a table napkin from Mr. Lee who was quick to stay by them. He wipes her lips, putting a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it.

She nods, but it doesn't take long before she feels her world spin. She stumbles on her feet, her knees trembling. Luckily, Gang Tae and Mr. Lee was quick to grab her, maintaining her balance. They quickly bring her to the living room, sitting her down on the couch.

"Omo, Moon Young-ah. What is happening to you? Omo, you can't be sick. You have a book to finish." Mr. Lee worriedly rambles as he wipes her forehead. Gang Tae was sitting beside her, massaging her arms while Ju Ri was quick to bring over a glass of water.

"Aish. I'm fine. It's probably just a flu, I've had it for more than a week." She waves her hand, annoyed at the fussy attention they hand on her. Like the stubborn that she is, she tries to stand up, but Gang Tae only pushes her back down, giving her a look. She lets out a breath, leaning back.

"She’s sick. Is she sick? If you're sick you need to rest. Rest. But she's been resting too much. Should, should we bring her to a hospital?" Sang Tae rambles, panic starting to dawn over him at sight of his sister looking frail. Jae Su was quick to calm him down, telling him she was going to be okay.

"I wonder what's wrong." Sundeuk tries to think, worrying over her state. He crosses her arms over her chest, thinking of any possibilities. When a thought crosses her mind, her eyes grow wide. She didn't want to acknowledge it, but she needed to get it out of her chest.

"Aigoo!" She clasps her hands. "Could you be pregnant?" Everyone in the room stills. They stare at her incredulously, mouths agape.

"Frequent vomiting." Jae Su says.

"Dizziness." Seungjae responds.

"Altered senses." Ju Ri concludes.

All the heads in the room slowly turns towards Gang Tae who had a stunned expression on his face. His heart started beat faster, sweat beading over his neck and his ears starting to blush red.

"M-Moon Young-ah, could you be pregnant?" Mr. Lee asks her, suddenly sounding like an overprotective father. He eyes her and Gang Tae back and forth.

"Of course its possible. With the rate he's penetrating me, I'm not going to be surprised." Gang Tae's eyes grow wide.

"Uhm, M-Moon Y--" He doesn't get to finish because she stands up rashly, walking towards the door. He attempts to follow her, but she puts up a hand which he earlier learned meant she needed time with herself. He sighs, sitting back down.

When she was out of the door, everyone returns their shocked gazes to him. He was in mild shock, heart hammering, thoughts going on a frenzy.

He flinches when Sundeuk suddenly hits him with her hands.

"You knocked her up before marrying her?! Gang Tae, I cannot believe you." When she finally calms down, she takes in a breath, hands on hips. He looks at her with nothing but guilty and worried eyes.

"You might be having a baby. Oh, it's going to be a good looking baby!" She pulls him in for a warm comforting hug, rubbing his back. She knew he felt nervous, but she could see the hidden happiness in his eyes despite the worry and guilt. She knew in her heart, if someone was ready to become a father, it was him.

Everyone else in the room, after finally getting to wrap their head around the idea, slowly turned their stunned looks into smiles. It was unexpected, but it was good news altogether.

"Well, that's one more thing we need to celebrate." Mr. Lee says, sending everyone in soft cheers. It was good news, but though unspoken, they all slightly worried about Moon Young and how she would react. Especially Gang Tae.

He gave her a few hours on her own. Sundeuk offered them to stay the night at the rooftop room, Jae Su and Mr. Lee offering to take Sang Tae in their room like old times. He sat on the stairs as he allowed her her space, thinking, and trying get himself accustomed to the fact that he might be a father soon. He was nervous, it made his heart thud, but he was also happy. The thought of having a child with the woman he loves made him excited.

This was one of the dreams he had developed as he started his new life with her. He wanted to build a family, a family with her. And now, they were a step closer. There was only one step left to do.

He takes the red velvet box out of his pocket, opening it to reveal the bright diamond ring. He'd been keeping it for quite a while now, trying to wait for the perfect moment. He was going to ask her tomorrow, when they were back at the cursed castle. He was going to invite her to the balcony where the moon would shine over them and the fireflies would float around them like magical glitter. When the moment was near perfect, and he poured his heart and soul to her, he would go down on one knee and ask her. And then he could only hope she says yes.

He found her sitting at the edge of the rooftop day bed. The sky was bright despite the dark night, the stars were shining and the moon was huge. He stopped for a second, admiring how ethereal she looked under the glowing celestial beauty.

There was no way he wanted to spend the rest of his life with someone else. If he was going to spend forever with someone, it was going to be with her. Yes, she might be an irrational brat sometimes, but she was his irrational brat. He'd gladly put up with all the complaining and temper if it meant he gets to have her.

He doesn't say a word as he sits beside her, leaving no space between them. He knew she needed some space to wrap her head around what could be happening. But this time, she didn't have to face anything alone, because he'll always be by her side. Sometimes far away, but always near.

"I just hurled what's left of my guts out. I think the pipes might just get busted for real this time." She says, looking straight ahead. He turns to look at her, a small smile in his face. He knew, she was going to be okay. Wrapping an arm over her shoulders, he pulls her close.

"What if it hates me? What if it fears me as I did with my mom?" She turns to her, the fear in her eyes making his heart ache. He doesn't blame her for thinking that. Her childhood was wasn’t exactly the best, and though she was healing, he knows a small part of it still continues to haunt her.

"It won't. Because you're not like your mom. And you know that. You're warm. And you know what it feels to be loved. Most of all, because you know how to love genuinely and wholeheartedly. You know why I know?" She shakes her head, her stare boring into his eyes.

"Because I can feel how much you love me. I can see how much you love Hyung. You don't say it much, but I can see how much you love everyone else in that room today. And I'm sure, you'll love our baby as much. And it's going to love you because it's going to feel how much his mom loves him."

He takes her hand, rubbing her palm with his thumb. He smiles at her, assuring her that nothing else but love and happiness is coming their way. When she smiles at him with genuine happiness, he leans in to press a kiss on her lips.

"Saranghae, Moon Young-ah." He says, pulling her closer, squeezing her arm.

"Saranghae, Gang Tae-ah." She wraps an arm over his torso. He smiles, pressing his cheek on the top of her head.

"Now I might have something growing inside of me like a tadpole. Feeding off my body." She mutters, making him laugh. He only pulls her in closer, a ridiculous smile on his face.

"We'll get you checked tomorrow, to be sure. But don't call the baby a tadpole." He chuckles.

"If we really are having a baby, I hope it's a boy that looks like you." He only nods, she always said that. He didn't argue, but a part of him wished they'd have a girl that would like like her. A daughter he'd be able to treat like a princess.

"You're going to have to answer Sang Tae. He's going to be asking about the whys and the hows. I'm pretty sure you done want me to answer." Yet again, he chuckles.

"Don't say a word to him, Moon Young-ah." He says in between his chuckles. He lets out a breath and smiles, looking up at the sky. His dreams were slowly starting to become a reality. He knew in his heart, and with the way the stars glowed, his mom was happy for him.

He couldn't ask for more. He was graduating next week with a job waiting for him at Mr. Lee's company. He is going to marry the love of his life, and possibly a baby on the way. There was no more repressing, no more hiding his feelings. He was happy, and he couldn't hide it.

97 notes · View notes

tigerseye46 · 3 years

Note

tell us about ur new oc!

Thanks for giving me an excuse to talk about her! I have a lot.

I’ve actually mentioned her before but before I figured everything out. I rp her in a server with my friends.

Her name is Huáng Xiàróng (煌夏荣 Brilliant Summer Glory)! Her name used to be Yuán but I changed it. I’ve created one design for her, I don’t draw often so it’s not the best but I tried. I’ll post her demon form and picrew of her human form at the end.

Originally she was supposed to be a motherly figure. That… uhh did not exactly go as planned. I kinda made her feral instead- also she used to be a straight up villain.

She’s a rabbit/bunny demon. Specifically a Manchurian hare. She has a mix of black, brown and gray fur with three spots on the side of her face which are replaced by freckles in human form. She has a notch on her ear and some spots there too. She has slight wavy hair with braids in the back.

Her hair is black with green strands, kinda like Mei which was completely unintentional and I only realized that now. Her eyes are green but they change to red when angered and brown when annoyed. She has a frilly dress. She has a tattoo on her back, 戰士 meaning warrior. Her height is 6 feet and 2 inches. She’s around 3000, maybe a bit younger and physically looks 35 - 40.

Small tw here, she has scars from years of fighting.

Abilities:

She can shapeshift to various things including a normal bunny form and a bigger, more terrifying version of herself.

Like most rabbits, she’s extremely fast (super speed).

She has the ability to control and manipulate fire.

She can jump high.

Super strength

And friend suggested the ability to possibly summon and ride a cloud.

Backstory: (I’m just going to copy and paste her backstory that I used for smth)

Xiàróng was born in the Qin Dynasty to two rabbit demons. Her parents were fierce demon lords that loved to mess with humans with their army. Her parents trained her in the hopes that she would follow in their footsteps and she did. She became a fierce warrior with a strong love of fighting and battling.

She led her armies into villages, messing with humans and demanding offerings. She loved the absolute terror that popped up on their faces as her army swept in. She enjoyed the amusement she felt every time they thought they could defeat her along with the absolute adrenaline that came with fighting.

Her parents were extremely proud of her and at times, fought with her but they mostly stayed regulated to their hideout. One day, they passed away in the field of battle, she rose and took their place. Xiàróng became better known as a fierce rabbit demon lord and grew her armies, even allying at points with some other demons.

She became renowned as her parents always hoped she would be. She loved her army and always made sure their efforts were rewarded. She treated them as a second family to her and they shared a deep bond.

One of Xiàróng’s generals told her about a monk journeying west to get scriptures and if she eats him, she can become immortal. While initially excited at this prospect, she declined when she found out that the person guarding him was the Great Sage. She then made sure her army never crossed paths with Sun Wukong and the rest of the pilgrims.

She continued onward and she thought the whole thing could last forever.

But obviously, nothing lasts forever. Humans started advancing and her demon army started falling, either passing away in battle, getting tired of fighting or deciding that they wanted to move on and pass off as humans to live normal lives, sometimes a mixture of the last two.

Xiàróng never stopped fighting and refused to quit until she faced a fierce opponent in battle that caused her spirits to wane. She eventually realized that with humanity’s advancements she longer had the edge that she used to. She decided to sadly give up fighting about 500-1000 years prior to modern day. In her current identity, she works at a boring office job to survive all while longing for the good old days.

The group finds her when they need her to face an opponent she had previously faced, possibly the same one that caused her spirits to wane.

(She also had might or might not have had a kid at one point when she was still a warrior. Mildly debating on the kid thing but I’m probably going with it.)

Likes and Dislikes:

She absolutely loves fighting, she loves the thrill that comes with it. She values hard workers as she had to work hard to get to where is. She loves to reminisce about the good old days when she was feared and respected. She likes the summer season. Her favorite colors are red and green. She likes drinking tea. She adores the outdoors. She likes (also dislikes) being alone. She likes people who value their family. She is a big fan of action movies. She likes exercising. She likes organization and plans. She loves her motorcycle and weapons. She loves being the leader of projects as it gives her a sense of power. She loves fire and is often entranced by it. She likes using her jumping abilities. She likes exploring nature.

She dislikes the modern advancements humans have made as she believes it puts her as a disadvantage and is part of the reason she is no longer feared. She dislikes mundane office work as she believes it to be below her skill level but does it to survive. She dislikes people who desert others as some of her army left because they were tired of fighting and wanted to move on. She hates being called cute. She hates slackers. She hates people who underestimate her. She dislikes interacting unless she has to.

Strengths and Weaknesses:

Strengths:

Xiàróng is extremely proud of her abilities. She is extremely brave and will gladly take action when need be. She is rather confident. She is observant because of her years as a demon lord. She is a strategic individual since she spent so much time with her generals planning out attacks. She is also rather smart from her years of teaching from her parents about different subjects. She will give her honest opinion if someone asks her. She is hard working. She is tidy and always makes sure to keep both her workspace and house clean. She actually has a motherly side to her and is rather gentle when interacting with children and is capable of being gentle when others are having a bad day, although this depends on who they are. She is agile.

Weaknesses:

Her belief in her abilities cause her to have excessive pride in them. Her bravery leads her to take reckless actions. Her longing to reclaim the past and become once again known as a fierce demon blinds her to the possibilities that come with the future. She holds on too much to the past and practically clings to it. She has a short temper and can snap easily. Her honesty leads to bluntness and people not liking her because of her opinion. She can also be rather dishonest sometimes. She acts as if she knows better than others since she’s been alive a long time and has a wide array of knowledge.

General Personality:

Xiàróng is not a sociable person, although she used to be back in the old days when she had her demon army. She can be quite dramatic especially when she’s explaining her past to people. She has a loud personality that appears when she’s explaining her history. This is a subtle and desperate attempt to reclaim what she used to have. Although, other than that, she is rather quiet and prefers not to interact unless absolutely necessary.

She prefers to keep to herself a lot of the time despite rabbits being social creatures. She feels out of place and longs for a world where she can go back to fighting and a time where her army was all together, laughing and smiling. Fighting is all she’s known for the longest time and believes that’s what she’s mostly good at.

Since some of her army has either passed away or left to find better lives, she is not a big fan of letting people close especially in a world of humans since these were people she once used to attack and mess with. She does rarely encounter some of the demons that used to be her army. She’s short tempered and aggressive. She appears cold due to her isolation and circumstances. Under her cold personality, there is a loud, bright and caring personality waiting to get out if she lets someone get close, maybe if she did, she could go back to the way she used to be.

She doesn’t care about the group at first until they keep dragging her along. She is terrified of Sun Wukong because of his reputation and is kinda wary of his successor but helps him out. She purposefully annoys Pigsy and has debates with Tang. Also I kinda ship her with Sandy but we’ll see how that goes-

Trivia:

Talents: Foraging, cooking, singing, Can expertly play pipa (Chinese lute) and piano, gardening, great medical knowledge, wrestling, sword fighting and spear fighting, stealth, hand to hand combat, whittling, excellent leadership skills, making strategies.

She has a motorcycle that she takes good care of.-Romance movies are a guilty pleasure of hers.

She is ambidextrous.

She’s bi.

She has a tattoo with the characters 戰士 meaning warrior on her back.

She has a small house in the woods near a mountain range outside the city.

She was around when the Journey to the West was happening but avoided the pilgrims since she didn’t want to risk angering Sun Wukong if she tried something.

Hobbies: poetry, training with her qiang and jian, exercising, running, singing, gardening, cooking, playing the pipa and piano, foraging, whittling/wood carving, origami, watching television

Her surname Huáng meaning brilliant refers to the family’s cleverness along with wanting to shine. Xià means summer, summer represents something in China such as the direction south, the color red, the sound of laughter, the heart, fire and a creature called the red phoenix. Red, in turn, symbolizes happiness, vitality, good luck, good fortune, energy and passion. Róng meaning glory is because her parents were hoping she’d be renowned by people all over.

Picture:

Link to the picrew I used for human form: https://picrew.me/image_maker/332600

Human form:

#lego monkie kid #monkie kid #Huáng Xiàróng #monkie kid oc #lego monkie kid oc #my friends will be the first to tell you that I go crazy with ocs-#which is why I have 100+#I’m also going to make more Monkie kid ocs eventually #my oc #I have some stuff written for her #but not a lot

4 notes · View notes

swiftlymoniquesblog · 3 years

Text

What Happens in the ATL- Tom Holland x OFC Natalia: One

A/N: Here’s the first chapter friends! Sorry this is so short but I feel like this gives a very good description of how I feel about Tom. I’m sure y’all can tell when you read through this, that Natalia is based off me. This is also the name of one the daughters I hope to have in the future. I hope too, that with a new job (DM me if you wanna know what happened) and with working less hours in a day, I can be able to write more!

Warnings: All the fluff you can dream of!

Word Count: 1,433

Series Masterlist| Marvel Masterlist| Masterlist of all Masterlists

Intro

Feedback is welcome! Tag list requests are open!

Finding love hasn’t been an easy task and Natalia Richardson surely knew all about it. For her, most of the guys she was attracted to usually turned out to be jerks, immature, or just wanting to get her into bed. She was a strong, independent woman, who was more concerned with making herself happy and getting her life in order. Most people thought she was strange because her history with relationships was very limited; only had one that she could count. Sure, she’s spent time with a variety of ‘bachelors’ in her lifetime, but only one was worthy of the title boyfriend. And even with him, it only lasted approximately one week, so she decided to focus on herself. She wanted to be the very best version of herself she could be, wanting to do what makes her happy and not wanting to have to ask permission from anyone. Her life was finally going in a good direction: she had a good job, she got to travel with friends, do whatever she wanted to for the most part. Now, she was working on her mental health and once that was under more control, she would think about a relationship. But it was never her first priority. Her family and friends were more important to her, aside from herself.

There was one friend in particular, whom she really admired and wished she could spend more time with. It was a different kind of friendship, one where they only met in person just once. Her friend T, was someone she met online and had gotten to meet face-to-face on one occasion. However, both girls felt rather close to the other, because of often they talked. Almost every day, they would talk about their personal lives, but they enjoyed several of the same interests, so they talked about those too. T was three years younger than Natalia and they were very different from the other, but they believed that was what made their friendship strong. With differences of opinions and where they were in life, they seemed to come from two different worlds almost. T was already married and lived in another state than Natalia; two opposites. But this was the foundation of what their friendship was built on. Both girls could accept where the other was and their differences and that created a healthy relationship. Who says you have to always agree with every little opinion someone else had? Natalia always made it known that she believed people who always agreed with everyone else, lacked their own individuality and she felt sorry for them.

The news came one day, that T was going to move from South Carolina to Atlanta, Georgia because her husband got a better job. She couldn’t wait to tell Natalia her good news, that as soon as she knew for sure, she sent a text to Natalia immediately.

T: Nat, you are not going to believe what just happened!

N: What’s that?

T: Alex (T’s husband) just got a job in Atlanta so we’re moving down there!

N: Wow, that’s great! Tell him congratulations from me!

T: I will! And guess what else is going on down there?

N: What?

T: They’re filming the newest Spiderman movie!

N: No way! Omg, you might get to meet Tom Holland!

T: Probably not, but it’s exciting to think about!

N: Well yes, but it’d be better if you get to meet him.

T: I don’t think I will with this stupid virus.

N: Yeah, that’s probably true. But who knows, you might just run into him somewhere.

N: And if you do, you should totally give him my number and tell him to text me lol

T: You know, I might just do that but I would give him my number too

N: But you have Alex! Come on, that’s not fair; I have no one!

T: Well, I love him too but fine If I see him, I’ll tell him to text you.

N: Now was that so hard?

T: Yeah, yeah, thank me later.

N: I will if you follow through.

T: I need to meet him first, you dork. And it’s hard to right now because I’m sure they’re not hiring any extras or allowing any fans around to watch the filming.

N: Okay, okay, fine. Just don’t forget!

T: How can I with you reminding me all the time?

N: I’ve only said it once!

T: Yeah, for now.

N: Ok you win this round.

Natalia smiles to herself and heads out to work for the day. She knows the chances of T actually getting to meet Tom and that she would give him her number, is completely low, but she could dream, right? No harm in that. Heading into the office for her shift, Natalia had a difficult time concentrating on her tasks at hand. Why? Because Tom Holland had wiggled himself into her mind and just lived there for a few years. And quite often, someone said or did something that reminded her of him. Or she saw his picture somewhere and it reminded her of why she loved him. Or she’d read an interview or saw a video of his, saw his social media posts, and it made her long for him. She was very passionate and when she liked someone, whether she knew them personally, or she just followed them, she dove in headfirst. For instance, when she first saw Tom Holland in the Marvel film, Captain America: Civil War, she immediately took a liking to him. She thought he was adorable and did very well filling the shoes of an iconic character like Spiderman. Natalia grew up with the likes of Toby McGuire playing the character, so just like the majority of her generation, she was hesitant to accept another one. In reality, Tom was the third actor to play Peter Parker that she could remember. They had Andrew Garfield try to fill the iconic shoes as well, but he didn’t do as well. So, it was only natural that she was afraid to accept another actor for a character she grew up loving. But when she saw him on screen, she was impressed with how he held his own up against some of the greats like Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and so many other big names that the Marvel Cinematic Universe had recruited for their films. Then when she got home, she did a Google search on him and learned they were very close in age. Something about being close in age to someone in the entertainment business really brought a sense of pride to Natalia. It wasn’t because she could do the same thing but when someone her age is making a name of themselves, she’s proud because maybe it seemed like people would appreciate the younger generations. As a good writer Natalia knows says, “when you are young, they assume you know nothing.”

From the first time she saw him nearly five years ago until now, she has managed to admire him and had in a way, fallen in love with him. She watched more movies, read interviews, watched/read his social media posts, and managed to learn all she could about him. It was safe to say, she was a fangirl. But it was more to her than just someone she admired or thought was attractive. No to her, he was someone that meant a lot to her and she would do anything to get the opportunity to meet him and spend a little one-on-one time with him. Just to talk to him and learn more about him because he seemed fascinating to her. He is the oldest of four boys, grew up in a completely different country than her, and was a freaking movie star! The kinds of questions she would ask him and the conversations they would have. One topic she would want to talk about is the difference between American and British cultures. The ways they differed in how they were raised, the kinds of foods they ate, the clothes they wore, what schools were like, grocery stores, shopping malls, restaurants, cars, roads, lots of things were different! She would love to learn all about what kind of life he led before he starting making a name for himself. Then she would tell him all about her life and what life was like for her growing up Stateside. All she wanted was just a chance, a chance to even just make a friend, let alone it going anywhere more than friendship; she was just interested in him.

Taglist: @tloveswriting @calaofnoldor @440mxs-wife @thinkinghardhardlythinking @to-my-beloved-fandoms-2 @angeredcrow @damn-stark @slutforfics @awesomesusiebstuff @hobby27 @lovabletomholland @spnjediavenger

#tom holland #tom holland gif #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland fluff #tom holland fandom #tom holland girls #tom holland x ofc

18 notes · View notes

athingthatwantsvirginia · 4 years

Text

Not Joyce or Monet

PART THIRTY-NINE OF THE DO YOU SEE HER FACE? SERIES

Pairing: Jess Mariano x Original Character (Ella Stevens)

Warnings: major discussions of parent death/death in general, smoking, drinking, plentiful pop culture references

Word Count: 6.3K

Summary: Jess publishes his second book and Ella receives a troubling call from Stars Hollow.

Flopping face-first down onto the bed, Ella breathed a sigh of relief. It would have felt strange not to have a little champagne at Jess’s book launch party. But, she was a lightweight. She was floating somewhere between tipsy, buzzed, and drunk. At least she was still capable of slipping off her shoes before making her way to the bedroom. She’d even managed to change into pajamas, brush her teeth, and wash her face. A far cry from the screwdriver incident at Liz’s baby shower. A heavy winter snow fell outside the windows and a touch of cold air seeped into the draughty apartment. Goosebumps rose lightly on her skin. In her state, they felt nice instead of uncomfortable. She was already dozing when Jess came in, having taken a quick shower. His hair was still damp as he climbed into bed next to her, the movement shaking her from her haze.

“Did you like your party?” she murmured, watching as he shut off the lamp and rolled over to face her.

His face was aglow with the bluish light of the snowy Saturday evening. “Mhm.”

She snickered a bit at his nonchalance. “I know you hate parties, but Chris insisted it was the best way to drum up business. And you do like surprises, Mr. Spontaneity. Matthew and I made it as lowkey as we could.”

“It wasn’t so bad, Eleanor. Really,” he said, shrugging. “You’re remembering that you whispered lines from Catch-22 in my ear all night, right?”

“I figured you’d need some Joseph Heller to make it through,” she explained, slightly sheepish.

Jess smiled. “Of course. And watching Chris and Leo get so drunk they do their acapella version of ‘Under Pressure’ could never be bad.”

“Leo does do a damn good Freddie Mercury,” Ella agreed, chuckling. “I didn’t realize the publishing agents would all go blackout level, too.”

“Oh, yeah. You should’ve seen what Chris did for the Subsect launch. It was like that scene where E.T. gets drunk. But if there were fifty aliens in the movie instead of just one,” Jess said flatly, begrudgingly.

“You must be a little drunk if you’re letting a cheesy eighties movie slip. Or have I finally converted you?” she teased, snuggling deeper into the pillow.

Jess smirked. “Not yet. Chris made me try his Manhattans to see if they ‘tasted too much like gasoline.’”

“I have a sneaking suspicion that they did,” Ella said.

“Someone give the lady a prize,” Jess shot back tiredly. “Good thing we walked there.”

“Yeah. And good thing I got to watch you catch a snowflake with your tongue on the way back.”

“Shut up.”

“Hey, don’t be embarrassed, cutie,” she said, forcing her laughter down. “I’ll be eating my words when you watch me fall on my ass while we’re ice-skating with April.”

She knew if he’d been entirely sober, he wouldn’t have gotten so caught up in his wonderment at the storm. But Ella had also seen him sticking out his tongue awaiting a snowflake in an old, yellowing photo album Liz had shown off during her baby shower. In it, Jess had been no more than three. Dressed in a raggedy winter jacket on some grimy corner of New York City. He and Liz were sticking their tongues out together. Seeing the photo had given Ella’s mouth a bittersweet taste. It was hard to imagine Jess ever feeling so relaxed around his mother. She saw the same rare awe from him on the walk home. Most of the time, he was so weighed down by the world he could barely come up for air. She thought she had never seen him look so young at heart before.

“Can’t wait,” Jess hummed, mocking. It was nearly time for April’s winter break, and Anna had somehow agreed to let her spend it with Luke, Lorelai, and Rory. Ella and Jess had opted to return to Stars Hollow for Christmas, after the bumps in the road on Thanksgiving. Two more days, and they’d be braving the icy roads on their way up to Connecticut. April had already called them to schedule a time for ice-skating. The proper, analytical way the little girl spoke never failed to amuse Ella.

“Me neither,” Ella quipped as her eyelids began to droop again. She could smell the minty scent of Jess’s shampoo.

As he watched her begin to drift off, he leaned in to press a kiss to her forehead. From what Matthew had said, Ella had essentially been put in charge of the party when Chris’s trademark irresponsibility made an appearance. Matthew had jury duty and couldn’t assume his usual role of organizer in the wake of Chris’s chaotic decision-making. What she’d managed to throw together, though, was one of the better parties Jess had ever been to. The publishers they knew usually sent younger employees to the underground press launches, and Chris had ended up making friends with most of the usual suspects at the launch for Jess’s first book. Ella had made sure the guest list only included familiar faces. If they just had to throw him a surprise party, which Chris demanded (normally, she wouldn’t have listened, but if it was a matter of getting his book better exposure, she was willing to risk it), she’d try to make it as comfortable for him as possible. Or, at the very least, bearable.

And she’d just gotten done with finals two days earlier. He could see how tired she was. Her nerves over the possibility of seeing her father during the winter holidays hadn’t helped her sleeping recently either. Though Jess wasn’t sure how it would actually pan out, she claimed she wanted an attempt at apologizing for what she’d said at Adam’s graduation. She was sick of family nonsense, she said. Maybe if she levelled the playing field, they could begin to understand each other again. Ella herself wasn’t sure exactly what had sparked her desire to try again with her family, but suspected it might have been Thanksgiving. Jess, simply put, was someone she admired. Seeing him trying to mend his relationships (even though he didn’t have to, even though it was difficult), made her feel just a little more confident. Maybe not everything turned out bad, after all.

Shutting his own eyes, Jess slipped his hand beneath Ella’s shirt, his fingertips ghosting over her back. She smiled softly at his touch, feather-light. A pleasant shiver rolled through her.

“Thank you for the party,” he said, barely above a whisper.

“Well, thanks for writing my new favorite book,” she answered instantly, sleepy and sincere. “I’m so fucking proud of you.”

. . .

There were still a couple hours left until lunchtime when Ella slipped through the door at Truncheon, but it wasn’t entirely uncommon for her to show up and work a little. Especially when she was on break from school and got antsy. Jess had debated giving her the easel he’d bought her for Christmas early, so she would have something new to focus on while he tied up the odds and ends at the book press. But, ultimately, he wanted to wait until the morning after they returned to Philadelphia. It would be far more surprising to wake up and find a Christmas present wrapped up in the living room on the morning of New Year’s Day than on the actual gift-giving holiday.

When he’d left for his last day of work prior to their trip to Connecticut, she’d still been half asleep. Her sketchbook was open on her bedside table, a pencil drawing of a child with hollow eyes having yet to be shaded. She’d been up late working on it the night before, on a roll. He hadn’t even shut the door to the apartment before she was out cold again. He’d been anxious to get back home, to pack and prepare for the trip. In his opinion, there was no use in only opening for a Monday and then closing for the holidays the rest of the week, but Matthew’s stickler spirit won out. Jess wasn’t going to be skipping around the store in merriment as the rest of the world took a vacation, but he also wasn’t moping around like Chris. He was in the midst of diffusing an argument between his two coworkers when Ella arrived.

He wanted to smile when he saw her, and almost did. But then he got a good look at her hazel eyes, and immediately he could tell something was wrong. It wasn’t that she was sleepy, though she looked a bit haggard in with her peacoat tied around her haphazardly and her hair wild, dotted with the snowflakes falling steadily outside. Instead, she looked almost unreachable. His Eleanor who was always so present and vivid and alive, even in the midst of drudgery. And she wasn’t daydreaming, either. She wasn’t off in her own thoughts, thinking of Emily Dickinson or James Joyce or Claude Monet. No; she was simply not there. Not really.

“Hey, honey. You’re early,” he began as she approached him, where he stood in between Matthew and Chris. The two of them didn’t even notice she’d come in until Jess addressed her, still too caught up in their argument over where to place the new books of free-form poetry.

Swallowing harshly, Ella gave a weak smile and raked her fingers through her hair. She walked up to them, wringing her hands together. Jess didn’t need to see her hands to know she had already bitten her nails down to the quick. At the interruption, Chris gave a frustrated huff and turned to Ella.

“Ella, please tell Matthew it makes zero sense to put the free-form poetry anywhere near the sonnets! They should be on opposite ends of the store, as far as I’m concerned,” he exclaimed in exasperation.

Matthew rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest as his jaw clenched. “I’m glad you’re here, Ella. Please tell Chris that we don’t only sell poetry, and free-form or not, it has no business anywhere near science fiction!”

Furrowing her brows, distracted, Ella shook her head. “Um...I don’t know...but I….”

“What?” Jess asked as she gestured slightly with her hands. Her face was pale, and she almost seemed confused, at a loss for words. It didn’t happen to her often, to say the least.

Blowing out a breath, she tried again, jerking her thumb back over her shoulder. “Back at the apartment...I just got a call from my brother. My dad’s dead.”

Jess’s heart dropped into his stomach. “What?”

“Yeah,” Ella said, nodding. As she continued, she took a hair elastic from her wrist and began pulling her locks into a ponytail. “Adam said he was in a car accident this morning. Driving home from some bar in Maryland. If I had to guess, he was still a little drunk from last night. No one else got hurt, which is good. He hit a patch of black ice, and he was going too fast, and I guess he just went right off the road. Into a tree. And he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt.”

Her speech became more urgent with every word, as they heard it sink in for her in real time. But she was never frantic, only determined and stern. The spacey fog was fading from her demeanor, though it remained in her eyes. Only in her eyes. She didn’t give them time to respond, just kept thinking out loud.

“Noah’s already on a plane from Oregon, but I don’t think he’s gonna be any help. And Adam said Fiona’s freaking out, so I’m almost definitely going to have to make the arrangements. I know you guys have work and stuff, but we need to pack up and get there before the rest of the family does, or everything will probably just explode on principle. Fuck! This is just like him. To die a week before Christmas!”

“Whoa, hey, Eleanor, just slow down for a second, okay?” Jess began, taking a hesitant step towards her and grabbing her hand. He squeezed once, hard, hoping to calm her down at least a little.

“Jesus, Ella-” Chris began.

“I’m so sorry,” Matthew said.

Ella shook her head, her face stoic. “Don’t, okay? Don’t be sorry. No one needs to be sorry. He was a fucking drunk, and it finally caught up with him. I just need to get back to Stars Hollow to take care of this, and then maybe Christmas won’t be completely ruined. Sound good?”

“Elle, just hold on. You should sit down and-” Jess said, but she cut him off.

“No, Jess. Seriously, I’m fine. Let’s just go and get it over with, and then it’ll be done,” she said, her hand never leaving his though she didn’t squeeze back. Her tone was tight, clipped, but she didn’t sound angry. He recognized it from the night on the bridge when she’d told him about the days following her mother’s death. The way she held it all together, and blocked it all out. Numb and headstrong.

“Do you want us to come with?” Matthew asked, watching with uncertainty as Ella began to tug Jess towards the door, grabbing his bag for him and handing him his coat.

“What? Of course not,” Ella said, insistent, as though it were obvious. “All I need to do is steal Jess for a few days. You need to do whatever it is you’re gonna do with Mabel. And Chris needs to do whatever it is he’s gonna do with Leo, and you need to tell me about it when we get back. I can pretty much guarantee your stories will be more fun than mine.”

“Are you sure?” Chris chimed in, brow heavy with worry. Her iciness surprised him. He had never heard someone react to a parent’s death quite so flippantly before.

“Yes. Jesus, Chris, keep up,” she replied, in a way which would have spurred a playful argument on a normal day. Again, her nonchalance unnerved all three of them.

Jess interlocked their fingers again instantly once he had his bag and his coat, almost heading out the door already. She was moving too fast for him to process much of anything, only reacting. He hadn’t seen her in such a frenzy in a very long time. “Eleanor, wait. Stop.”

“I can’t stop, Jess. I told you, we’ve gotta get there before my uncle has time to hit on Fiona and before Noah has time to piss off Adam. It’s fine. I promise. I’m fine.”

He opened his mouth to respond, but she pulled him out the front door instead. As they went, she shouted over her shoulder to Matthew and Chris: “Happy holidays! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”

And then, she and Jess were gone. Chris and Matthew exchanged concerned, flabbergasted glances.

. . .

Flashback was the word that came to the forefront of her mind, as she stared up at the ceiling in the Gilmore living room. Luke and Lorelai were trying, and she appreciated it. They could both tell she didn’t want to talk about it, only wanted a bit of normalcy after the long day. And they’d obliged. After all, they’d had practice. Lorelai knew exactly what to do. She’d had Luke bring dinner home from the diner: turkey sandwiches and sodas. She’d suggested they watch a movie after dinner, something campy horror. Finally, they had settled on The Lost Boys. Ella knew how much Jess hated the movie, especially Kiefer Sutherland’s mullet, but he never complained once. A large part of her wished he would. She wanted it to be the way it was supposed to be. She wanted to have Christmas in Stars Hollow with the people who felt more like her family than her father did. Adam celebrating with one of his school friends in Boston, Fiona with her sister, Noah with his finacée in Oregon. But, of course, things never went as planned. Not in Ella’s experience at least.

At some point during the movie, she’d fallen asleep on the couch. No matter how much she wanted to stay awake until the end, she couldn’t keep her eyes open. Dealing with Fiona’s blubbering and Adam’s silence and Noah’s anger had pretty well exhausted her. Not to mention the business setting up the funeral at the church. She’d spent nearly two hours with the pastor, but the service was only halfway planned. She wished Aunt Julie could arrive sooner, but the girls were in school until Tuesday. Erin had some big recital she was pitching a fit about missing. Ella couldn’t blame her. She wouldn’t want to be there if she didn’t have to be. No, they would arrive on Wednesday morning. Two hours before the funeral, set for noon. At some point before then, Ella would have to sort out the flower arrangements and the music and the programs. At least Luke was providing the food. She assumed he would before he even offered. And she would have to write the eulogy. But she wasn’t even thinking about it yet. Every time the idea of writing it entered her mind, she would start humming a Stevie Nicks song and pointedly ignore it.

It was all too familiar. The planning, the writing, the consoling. Since they’d arrived in Stars Hollow that afternoon, it had been a non stop barrage of tasks and tears. None of it was surprising. And it almost made her want to laugh. The minute she heard that her mother was dead, she had burst out laughing, a nervous reaction she couldn’t control. Granted, the laughter came from deep inside her, and probably resembled a pained shriek more than an actual giggle. But it was laughter nonetheless, and her father had recognized it as such. He’d yelled at her until his voice became hoarse. She knew it wouldn’t happen again. He was the dead one now, after all. But still, she didn’t let the anxious laughter escape. She didn’t let anything escape. After the punishment she’d received for letting go last time, she knew not to do it again. No one was there to smack her, to scream, but she just couldn’t bring herself to forget how it had felt. Like she couldn’t even grieve right. And the best way to grieve became to not grieve at all.

She laid with one hand on her stomach and the other behind her head, analyzing the popcorn ceiling. She’d awoken with the room dim and the TV shut off. A quilt which she hadn’t fallen asleep under was draped over her, and there were hushed whispers in the direction of the kitchen. She hadn’t planned to wake up until morning, but she hadn’t planned to fall asleep there either. They were supposed to be sleeping in the apartment above the diner for the vacation, while Rory and April took the spare beds in the Gilmore house. But neither girl had yet to arrive, and Lorelai insisted Ella and Jess stay over after dinner. It was no use driving over in the snow, even if Luke’s was only about a minute away. Ella couldn’t believe how similar it all was to before. Sleeping alone on the Gilmore couch as others worried over her a few feet away.

She listened, in spite of herself. It was too tempting not to eavesdrop when she’d already heard her name so many times. Luke was concerned about her forgetting to eat. Lorelai was concerned about her shutting everyone out and being overwhelmed by the funeral preparations. And both of them were concerned about her coming to blows with Fiona at some point in the next few days.

Sighing, Ella ran her tongue over her teeth and remembered she hadn’t brushed them. She debated not doing so, but decided to just bite the bullet. With everything else on her mind, she thought it best to eliminate all the outward elements which might impede her from getting back to sleep. She rolled over on her side, preparing to sit up, when she saw Jess. She thought he’d be in the kitchen, talking with Luke and Lorelai. Instead, he sat on the floor with his back against the sofa. His head was near hers, leaned back. His eyes were closed, but he wasn’t snoring. She doubted he was fully asleep, but nonetheless attempted to get past him and rummage through the bag on the armchair to find her toothbrush. Her stealth proved lacking, however, when he began to stir as soon as she reached the bag.

“Hey,” he said quietly, rubbing at his eyes with the heels of his hands and doing his best to seem lively. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she replied, fishing her toothbrush out from the sea of clothes she’d thrown into the duffel before they sped away from the apartment in Philadelphia. “I just forgot to brush my teeth.”

“Oh,” he said, nodding and hoisting himself up. His neck was already sore from the position he’d dozed off in, unwilling to follow Luke and Lorelai into the kitchen with Ella asleep on the couch. “Me too. I’ll come with.”

She nodded back, grabbing his toothbrush as well. The whispers didn’t cease until they made their way into the kitchen, Luke and Lorelai looking up at their entrance. Ella debated using the upstairs bathroom, not disturbing the two of them. But she didn’t have the energy to climb the stairs, and it would be the first time she could get a good look at the new half-bathroom they added next to Rory’s room. The smell of the diner food lingered, and it made Ella’s chest feel just a touch less tight. Lorelai broke out into a small smile at the sight of the two of them.

“You need anything, sweetie?” she asked, speaking only to Ella.

Though she felt a bit uncomfortable under everyone’s gaze, Ella smiled back. There was a warmth in her stomach at Lorelai’s voice. She focused on that feeling, and only that feeling. “No, we’re fine. Just brushing our teeth. The dentist would be pissed at me if I broke the pattern after over twenty years.”

“That’s true. Always best to avoid the Sweeney Todd dentistry possibility,” Lorelai agreed, nodding. Then, she yawned theatrically and looked at Luke, who only rolled his eyes at the dramatics. “I think we’re gonna head upstairs. It’s past our bedtime.”

“Still got those four o’clock deliveries, huh?” Jess asked sullenly, eyeing Luke. Many a morning when he was a teenager, he’d been awoken at half past three by the sound of Luke’s alarm.

Luke sighed. “For the business that housed and fed you for two years? Yeah, I do.”

Ella snorted a laugh, and nudged Jess playfully in the ribs. “Like you’re not always up before the sun, even on Saturday.”

“Where do you think that started?” Jess shot back, pointing an accusatory finger at Luke. “He screwed with my internal clock for life!”

“I think that’s enough fuel for future therapy sessions for tonight,” Lorelai announced, rising from the table, Luke following.

“Agreed,” Luke grumbled.

As they exchanged goodnights, Lorelai gave Ella a kiss on the cheek. Immediately after, she scrunched up her nose and smudged the lipstick from Ella’s freckled skin with her thumb. To Ella’s shock, Lorelai also gave Jess a short hug before making for the stairs. Luke hugged Jess, too. The two of them still had trouble showing physical affection for each other, as they probably always would. Ella had to stifle a laugh at the awkwardness between them.

When Luke hugged Ella, though, she felt tears prick at her eyes for the first time all day. She recognized his familiar smell, the soft feeling of his flannel, his strong arms around her. Somewhere in her mind, it occurred to her that the way it felt for Luke to hug her was what she had always wanted it to feel like when her own father hugged her. And she knew for sure she would never get it from him. She could finally be certain there was nothing left to do to repair her relationship with him. There was no time left for Jake to make her feel as safe as Luke made her feel. As he never had, even in her childhood. But by the time she and Luke broke apart, she had gathered herself enough. She cleared her throat and blinked away the glassy sheen in her eyes.

Luke ruffled her hair as he stepped back from her. If he saw that she was upset, he didn’t acknowledge it. “Don’t worry, kid. We’ll get everything figured out tomorrow.”

“I know, boss,” she replied.

. . .

The cigarette smoke made her a bit nauseous, but it was also comforting in a way she was slightly ashamed of. The winter air was crisp and biting, and her cheeks were frosted roses. Embers glowed orange in the darkness as she took a long drag, burning her lungs. She was already regretting it, but she simply felt too tired to think out the actual consequences of what she was doing. She had tried. She really had. But falling asleep, with Jess snoring softly beneath her as they lay on the couch, was absolutely impossible. Fatigue was weighing down her bones, and there was a perpetual ache throbbing behind her eyes. But each time she got close to sleep, the thought of her father would flash across her mind, and she would be wide awake once more.

Once she gave up, she had managed to sneak outside unnoticed. The wind whispered past her, hollow and haunting. But maybe everything was feeling spookier because death was at the forefront of her mind. Then again, when wasn’t it? Though the shock had certainly hit her with full force when she heard the news, she couldn’t bring herself to be surprised. The other shoe had dropped. She knew it would, just when she let her guard down. The moment she forgot to worry, the universe had knocked her down again. She flicked her cigarette and watched the excess ash melt a small spot in the snow below the steps.

At the sound of the front door creaking open, she startled only a little. For a wild moment, she wanted to put her cigarette out and hide it behind her back, pretending to be innocent. Especially if it was Luke. But she had to remember she was a grown up. And the feeling disappeared entirely when she saw only a disheveled Jess wrapping himself up in his jacket as he came out onto the porch and sat down next to her.

“You’re gonna catch a cold out here,” he remarked, holding her peacoat out to her.

She took it with a trembling hand.

“Thank you,” she said solemnly, breathing out a long stream of smoke as she spoke. The coat was old and cheap, and did little to help a Connecticut winter, but she shrugged it on anyway.

He nodded, chewing on his bottom lip. “Don’t mention it.”

They sat in silence, an owl hooting somewhere in the trees beyond the house. Ella didn’t put the cigarette out until it got so small it began to burn her fingers. After she’d discarded it, her breath still puffed out, along with Jess’s, in frigid white clouds. Flurries of snow fell in scattered sprays, but the night was mostly quiet and overcast. Jess crossed his arms over his chest, waiting.

She spoke, as he knew she eventually would, after a few more minutes. Gesturing down to the crushed cigarette, her tired eyes met his. “Do you want one?”

“No, thanks,” he said, shaking his head. “Where’d you get those in the middle of the night in Stars Hollow, anyway?”

A thin smirk ghosted over her lips. “Snatched ‘em off Bootsy’s newsstand.”

“Really?” he asked, laughing slightly, with eyebrows raised.

She snorted and rolled her eyes. “Don’t act so surprised, Mariano. I was sneaking out of my bedroom window long before you got here.”

“Touché.” His eyes lingered on her, hair glistening golden in the soft light and eyes still far off somewhere miles away. He hesitated before he continued. “Did you walk all the way to Bootsy’s without a coat?”

She shrugged, glancing down at the Doc Martens on her feet. “I’m fine. I had my good shoes on. Besides, it’s only like a minute away.”

“Alright.”

“Seriously, Jess. I’m fine,” she snapped after a moment.

“Okay. I get it,” he said instantly. “You’re fine. You’re not cold.”

Ella ran her hands through her hair. Her body shook as she yawned.

“You wanna go back to bed?” he asked.

“No,” she said with a heavy sigh.

“Are you sure?”

“Jesus, Jess! Stop trying to take care of me! Stop asking me questions! Just let me fucking sit here!” Ella exclaimed, huffing in frustration.

Jess recoiled slightly, and he nodded at her again. He ran a hand over his mouth and swallowed down the million other questions which were rising in his throat. The ones she’d refused to ask on the drive up, and the ones she apparently still wanted to avoid. “Sorry.”

She rolled her eyes, mostly at herself. “No, I’m...I’m sorry. I’m just tired. I couldn’t fall asleep.”

“We don’t have to sleep if you don’t want to. We could watch one of Lorelai’s cassettes in there,” Jess suggested, fighting hard to keep his tone light, bracing for whatever reaction she was going to have.

“I love that she still has cassettes,” Ella said wistfully, though not smiling. Her voice was low and raspy as she stared out ahead of her into the darkness and the lightly falling snow.

He nodded a little. “I know you do.”

Ella’s hands were itching to hold another cigarette, but she fought the urge. The pack which sat on the porch steps next to her would almost certainly be crumpled up and thrown in the trash the moment she reentered the house. Along with the lighter. But it was nice to have them there. If she wanted. They sat wordlessly, listening to the rustle of the wind in the evergreen trees. Jess didn’t make a sound. He was just far away enough not to touch her, almost in silent askance of whether she wanted space. She did. And she didn’t want to talk. She didn’t want to talk almost as much as she didn’t want to write the eulogy. She wanted to be able to push down the sorrow and the rage until they just dissolved and she was as happy as she had been just a day earlier. Yesterday, she may have even been hopeful. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt hopeful about her family. But, now, she had to stop herself from reaching for a cigarette yet again. And she felt herself wanting a drink. A drink stronger than champagne at a book launch. And then the words started flowing before she could overthink them, before she could lock them away in her heart forever.

She swallowed thickly, looking down into her lap at her nail-bitten hands. “This is just like it was the last time.”

“Oh yeah?” he whispered, shifting a bit closer to her.

“Yeah,” she echoed, so quiet he almost couldn’t hear. She sniffed. “I mean, last time my dad was the devastated one instead of Fiona. But Adam still got pissed at Noah, and Noah only got more pissed because Adam was mad at him.”

Noah had only made it to town an hour before Ella left to go back to the Gilmore residence for the night, but he and Adam were at each other’s throats pretty much as soon as they saw each other. Upset that his Christmas vacation was being disrupted, Noah had insisted on staying at a motel instead of at the little blue house in which they had grown up. Adam wasn’t happy about it, accusing Noah of acting as though he was too good for them. In turn, Noah asked Adam why he wasn’t mad at Ella for staying with Lorelai. Adam had shot back immediately, saying Noah had abandoned the entire family the minute he could, while Ella stayed behind. At that point, Ella knew there was no way to diffuse the situation. She’d only offered to walk back with Noah to the motel, leaving Adam to sleep in his old room. Luckily, Fiona’s sister was already in town for the holiday. So, it didn’t wholly fall to any of the three of them to console her.

Jess and Luke had both offered to go over to the house with her after helping with the arrangements, but she’d insisted on meeting her brothers there alone. The surreality of the moment didn’t dawn on her until she saw Adam’s teary eyes and Noah’s flushed face. It was like she had stepped into the past. She’d come back to the Gilmore house to find Jess sitting in the living room, halfway through the Russian novel he’d brought with. In the face of his questions, she’d only given him the liner notes and then fallen mostly silent for the rest of the evening.

“And Lorelai and Luke won’t let me brush my teeth without asking me if I need anything,” Ella continued, with a scoff in her words. “And, I love them. I do. And I’m so fucking grateful that it hurts. But, I’m fine. I’m totally fucking fine.”

“So I’ve heard,” he quipped.

“You’re hilarious.”

“I’ve heard that, too,” he said.

She laughed breathily, lifting her head to look up at the sky. “Shut up.”

“Will do.”

Then, after a moment: “I just wish...I wish it wasn’t like this. I mean, he was a shitty dad. But he was still my dad.”

He watched as she chose her words, carefully. Her voice had more emotion than he’d heard all day. Bringing his arm around her shoulders, he hoped to lessen the trembling of her hands just a little. She leaned into him, letting herself feel his warmth but fighting the wateriness in her voice. Of all the things she didn’t want to do, crying was at the top of the list.

“And now...I don’t have parents. I don’t even have a dad who hates me and never calls,” she continued.

“He didn’t hate you,” Jess interjected.

She shook her head. “Yeah, he did, Jess. He fucking hated me. Because I looked like my mom and I didn’t like Fiona and I wouldn’t quit talking back at the dinner table. But it doesn’t bother me. I hated him most of the time, too.”

He hummed in response, listening.

Her face crumpled for only a moment. But, again, she regained her composure. A couple silent tears threatened to slip over. “But at least I had someone to hate, y’know? Now, it’s just...no one.”

She took in a shaky breath, and Jess began to rub circles over her back. He recognized that her shivering was no longer due to the cold but from the sobs she wouldn’t let loose. Ella’s stomach did a flip, as she clenched her hands into fists. But she just couldn’t hold it in any longer. She let a single wimper pass her lips. And then, the levee broke. She put her head in her hands and finally began to weep, cries from deep within her escaping at last.

“I just...I don’t have p-parents anymore,” she spoke through sobs, trying to get her voice under control but failing miserably. “I’m not anyone’s daughter anymore. I don’t belong to anyone anymore.”

Jess shut his eyes for a moment, feeling a crack in his heart as he heard her anguish. But a part of him was relieved she was finally letting it out. He knew not all of her tears were for her father, but for her mother as well. He’d never seen her cry so hard before, so hard she couldn’t catch her breath and she was beginning to feel sick to her stomach. She stopped being able to talk after a while, only crying, folding in on herself.

“I...I don’t...belong to anyone anymore,” she repeated.

Gnawing on his bottom lip again, Jess smoothed an affectionate hand over her hair. He pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. Though he couldn’t see her face, Ella felt her cheeks heat up at his seeing her sob so openly. Jess spoke in a clear, strong tone.

“Listen, Eleanor, I know it feels like you’re alone without them, but that’s not true, okay?” he said.

She let out a tearful scoff.

“Hey, hey, hey, I’m serious,” Jess continued, placing a hand on her damp cheek and turning her face gently so she would look at him.

She wanted to avoid his eyes, embarrassed, but simply couldn’t bring herself to look anywhere else. The sight of him almost made her physically relax.

An earnest crease stood out between his eyebrows when he spoke again. “You belong to me, and I belong to you. That’s how it’s always been, hasn’t it?”

She stared at him for a moment, stunned at his words, as tears kept rolling steadily down her cheeks. But then, her lip began to quiver and she closed her eyes. Jess was worried she was about to get angry again. But instead, she slumped weakly against him. He could feel her tears begin to wet the neckline of his t-shirt as she rested her head on his chest. Breathing out long and slow, Jess wrapped his arms around her. He didn’t know whether his words had helped, but he was doubtful. No amount of talking was going to make her feel any better. He couldn’t crack a joke or start a playful argument or do a magic trick. He could only be there. He simply sat and held her against the wind.

#gilmore girls #gilmore girls au #gilmore girls fanfiction #gilmore girls oc #jess mariano #jess mariano x oc #jess mariano oc fanfiction #jess mariano au #jess mariano x original character #oc fanfiction #luke danes #lorelai gilmore

30 notes · View notes

popculturebuffet · 4 years

Text

The Loud House Reviews: The Boss Maybe/ Family Bonding

Loud House weekly coverage continues as Leni is pushed into the deep end of responsiblity and taking over Lori’s old role of babysitter while her parents are gone and promptly drowns in a sea of comedy clubs, human body parts both on screen and in the fridge, old men in holes and indoor beach volley ball.

First things first: Last week I forgot to mention Rusty’s mustache freezing off as god, wether it be the judeo-christian god, Odin, that prick Zeus, the flying spagehtti monster or one of many other gods out there. Perhaps all of them did it at once out of hatred for the little weiner. Maybe one of them finally answered my prayers which in that case, that was nice and all but there are far worse things going on i’d prefer you took care of. Also the “stuff I couldn’t fathom” turned out to be just more loudcest, because of course it did. Loudcest is like David Spade, you think it’s finally gone or isn’t doing as much but then it comes around and makes the wrong missy and you waste 90 minutes of your life thinking i’td be so bad it’s good when it’s really just boring and a waste of it’s main actress talent. I lost track of that metaphor, but Loudcest is like david spade in that people like it for reasons I can’t fathom and it hasn’t quietly faded into the background for reasons I can’t fathom, though at least david spade was funny once. So maybe Loudcest isn’t like david spade. or maybe i’ve been taking too long with this bit.

But whlie last week was a bit wonky it also had a lot to setup.. but now it’s time to see what the show does with all the setup over, and a lot of new possiblities ahead. PItter Patter!

The Boss Maybe Ah now this is exactly what I was hoping for this season. New situations brought about by the year-up and all the changes it brought, with the same old heart and humor and character progression that drew me back into the show. This is the kind of episode i love and have talked about in the past and dosen’t fall into any of the shows usual pitfalls in the process. Just great. I could end it there but I haven’t shut up before why do it now. So this episode focuses on Leni who I talked about a bit last week and easily had the best plot and in general tends to have good episodes, both before and after the show became an ensemble piece, and even in episodes without her tends to slide in just fine. She’s always a nice breath of fresh air when she shows up.

I think that’s due to a number of things. For one it’s how sweet a person she is: She’s genuinely nice, kind and well meaning. While she is dumb as a box of rocks that resemble Pauly Shore, what I like is her stupidity isn’t malicious, or overused for misery. She causes comical injuries from time to time with it but she’s quick to apologize iff she realises it and usualyly has no ill will to anybody unless provoked or fighting Lori over a dress despite them wearing the same clothes all the time. I know standard animation thing but it’s always weird to me when shows with a stock outfit for a character have a fashionista, and prefer when shows have stylish characters actually change outfits like Kim Possible did with it’s title character, Xiaolin Showdown did with Kimiko and of all things LIttlest Petshop did with Blythe. Granted Blythe is a nothing of a character but still, credit where it’s due. But I do get this is also a nick show and they givet hem the budget of 50 cents and a network memo that says “BEG US FOR MORE MONEY” written in blood, so fair enough.

That aside she’s just plesant to watch. The other factor is Liliana Mumy. If you haven’t heard of her , she’s a vetran voice actress whose been doing this on and off since she was a kid, voicing Panini on chowder as a child and later going on to voice Beth in bravest warriors among other roles. Why she only does work so ocasionaly I have no idea but when she does she’s great. She’s also the son of fellow child actor BIll Mumy, aka the guy who as a kid played Anthony Fremont from the Twilight Zone classic “It’s A Good Life”, which if you haven’t seen it is about a small child who has the power of a god and thus can banish people who are “bad”, i.e. disobey him and thus rules over a small town as a creepy and cruel despot. Oh and he can read minds so if you dare to have a thought he dosen’t like your getting banished, with no telling what that means or where anyone disappeared goes. It’s good stuff. Highly recommend it, Mumy is absolutley terrifing and a brilliant actor even at that age and I wish he’d done more as an adult. I also bring it up because Lily played his daughter when they did a sequel episode during the UPN version of the show, set decades later and showing just what the little terror was like grown up... as well as what happens when his DAUGHTER gets the power. It was also really good and worth a watch after the first one. Good stuff.

TLDR: Leni is one of my faviorites, so’s her voice actress, i’ve rambled enough about unrelated stuff at this point.

We open at the mall, where for Leni life begins after schol, that’s when we bend all the rules time to hang with all her friends in the place where she belongs!

youtube

I mean technically she’s 17 now, but she was 16 when she started this job and none of them were 16 by the time the show ended so nyeh. This started in season 3 when the show started giving the girls not just their own stories but their own supporting casts., storylines, love intrests etc. Luna and Luaan got their romance plots with Sam and Benny, Lori got her college plot towards the end of the season, Lynn’s friends started showing up in her plots more, Luna’s mortuariy club went from assorted background friends of hers to a full fleged supporting crew, and of course Lincoln’s friend group started to become a recurring part of his plots away from his sisters.

For Leni, being one of the only three kids that could legally work at the time, another possible plot to dig into, and with Luna having way less incentive to get a 9-5 job with her music to work on and the fact we’ve seen her use said music to make money once in a blue moon, Leni was a good choice. It gave her something she was good at besides fashion, even if it’s fashion adjacent and gave us a new supporting cast for those stories: Her boss Mrs. Redinger, your standard “i’m tough by fair” type, and her new friends Fiona and Miguel, two fellow fashion savy teens played by actors i’d never heard of but who do a damn good job and play off her well, with both being a bit sarcastic but Fiona being a bit more mopey and deadpan and Miguel being a possibly but defintely gay teen. Both play off her well by being more down to earth and more wiling to be negative, but still enjoyable enough to be around you can buy them being friends with Leni and their a stellar addition to the cast. I wish, much like we’ve gotten with Liam lately, we could see more of them outside leni stories. Their a treat.

But I really like Leni’s work there. Besides the cast it puts Leni in a role of responsiblity she excels at. My only real problem is her boyfriend, maybe I dunno, Chaz, one of the ONLY love intrests from l is for love to get mentioned again and one of the more intresting ones, never shows up despite also working at hte mall and the story potetial of them working for rival stores or the same store. I mean I can’t blame them for not throwing another love intrest on the pile when they had two ongoing romance plots, but now both Luna and Luann are on steady ground with their steadies, it’s time to pull that trigger, get off hte ground and eat that horse. Also let LIncoln have one again will ya? It dosen’t have to be stella but Girl Jordan is right there, i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again.. where is she. And if not her just make one you’ve proven to actually be really good at it.

Where was I? Ah yes the mall. Leni is doing great at her job, suggesting some gloves to scoots, who ceases being skeptical when a hunky younger man of 30 something compliments her on them them chases off after him. If you don’t remember who scoots was that’s the old lady on a scooter who makes troulbe and appareltly can still get it. Good for her. Granted this is coming from someone who ships eda and stan pines still even though it’s now revealed she’s 30 but... frankly I don’t think age is a concern with her and stan can make this joke, so it evens out.

I mean he would right? I”m getting off topic even more than usual, point is Leni is doing great and her boss takes her to the break room for cake room... it’s just the one cake but can you imagine a cake room? that’s the life. Just a fridgerated room full of cake.

Turns out she’s EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH. And she didn’t have to chain squidward to an ancient battle ship to get it or anything. After some confusion, Fiona has to clarify it’s NOT her birthday because of course she does, Leni is proud. Full of cake and pride she tells her mom whose decided to reward her good job at work.. by dumping a bunch of respnosiblity on her. I kid. Rita is being somewhat resonable here. She asks Leni to take over Lori’s old role of babysitting/making sure the other 10, now 9 kids don’t burn the house down... no really she actually specifies that when leaving in the next scene. Which.. fair enough.. you have 11 kids, all likely to plug in a lot of stuff especially Luna and Lisa, said Lisa is a mad scientest who ends up nearly being the one to do it this time, Lynn has no common sense, and the younger ones who aren’t mad scientst are still reckless and vain and combattive respectivley so the odds of a house fire nearly breaking out on any given night are 1:1. But Leni in a show of self doubt that’s rare for her is scared (Though her revealing that by answering a question of how she’d feel about about babysitting the kids with “Scared” was fucking gold. I swear Lily’s deliveries are always so great. ), and while Rita assures her she’s not sure. But as I said, she is being resonable: While Leni’s not the brightest she’s kind, she’s been shown even before her recent major award she’s responsible, she’s babysat for other people’s kids, and she’s kind. I mean they COULD put Luna or Luaan in charge but while when I first read the preview blurb for this episode I was cuirous why they didn’t think of that or thought they would, this episode does a good job presenting WHY they’d do it, while other episodes fill in the gaps: Luna is a bit reckless and Luaan can get caught up in her bidness and as we know once a week goes through the green door and comes out a gamma monster fuled by the sound of her own laughter, a horrible mixture of the joker and madman.. the leader’s insane brother. I’m a huge nerd, you all know this. Leni is the right choice.

Despite her nerves Leni has little choice but to take it on and Mr. Loud proudly sees her out with ye olde english as he and Rita, with lily in a cute little knight’s helmet in tow, are going to a renisance fair to cater, with Lynn Sr needing the backup. And while you may say “what about his staff”.. their either going with and he just needs an extra pair of hands since it’ll be nuts, or some of them are staying behind to man Lynn’s Table while he’s out on his catering gig. I mean the man has plenty of time for his kids, he’s not at the restraunt 24 hours a day. Someone else has to run it when he’s gone. I asked internally why they didn’t just take them along.. then reminded myself that taking all 11 kids to the faire at once, without anyone to watch them and likely having to call in favors when jsuta s likely, Lynn Sr and Rita can take them all another day with presumibly free passes as part of the catering job as that sounds like the kinda thing he’d do. Also Senior’s into scarf’s now thanks to Leni, which I love. Looks good on him. Hank should give her a call. Ascots may be out but I think he could rock a scarf. I’ve had ventures on the brain. What follows is naturally Leni having several panic attacks as chaos naturally insues btu without Lori’s lifetime of experince dealing with it. IT’s a nice dynamic: Leni, as we’ve established, has always been sort of Lori’s sidekick, her best friend, her amigo. Sure they fight, siblings do that, but they’ll always be there for each other when it counts. SHe’s never really had to THINK without her or be without her, so throwing her into the deep end of taking care of the kids really leaves her shook. It’s a HARD job, it’s probably why the louds don’t bring in babysitters often: there are 11 kids to look after, 10 now and only 9 tonight but still a LOT of them and most of htem pretty high maintince. It was just easier with Lori because she grew up knowing each of them, knowing each of their weaknesses and putting the fear of her righteous wrath into them. They’ve spent their whole lives looking up to her, literally and figuratvely, as their big sister and respecting her as the biggest authority in the house that’s nto her parents, sometimes bigger. Those aren’t just big shoes to fill , their Galactus size and that combined with her big sister worship leaves Leni understandably scared, lost and frequently paralized with anxiety this episode. No really multiple times she just freezes and one times she screams. As someone with Anxiety disorder I related to this.. sometimes you either just break down or you just FREEZE from the stress and everything hitting you at once and have no idea how to progress while people are still barking at you to do something. It’s a lot but it was a nice touch that really added to her sympathy. And her anxiety is also understandable when she’s being hit with 80 problems at once, which i’ll tackle all at once here rather than in order as this episode has a really frentic and good pace: while it follows the formula of “Leni runs into a problem, Leni freezes, then Leni gets help from Lori twice hten mr.grouse, more on that in am inute”, the quick pace and great jokes help keep things from feeling too repetivie.

Anyways the chaos: Just from the start Lucy puts a possibly human liver in the fridge, Lana eats all the cookies then gets skunked by her pet skun, and Lola and Lynn get into a fight over 5 bucks Lynn found, and since Leni can’t just let one kill the other as nature intended she has to fix all this.. mostly by removing the smell with tomato juice and scaring off the skunk and cutting the dolar bill in half. Money dosen’t work that way as both sisters point out but frankly it’s Lola and Lynn, I don’t care who they feel.

Meanwhile two of my other faviorties get into a tiff over their room: Luaan turns it into a comedy club and kicks luna out, with Scoots and her new man returning. Again, get it girl, get it, and Leni, under Lori’s advice, pretneding to be a fire marshall.. only for Luna towarsd the end to turn it into her own rock club. Lisa creates a corossive super substance that burns a hole in the floor, Lana continues to grapple with the skunk and finally Lincoln and Clyde.. watch a scary movie despite Lucy’s warnings.. and Lucy does something else.. I think? It was a chaotic episode with a lot of set pieces so forgive me if I forgot one of them. Honestly she’s the most well behaved there.But yeah as per the cliche Lincoln and Clyde, after Leni gets the wifi fixed with Mr. Grouse’s help, they get super scared and freaked. Everyomne is freaking, the house is falling apart and Senior wants permission to wear a pinky ring via thought cloud.. which.. no man no. Scarves yes but no one looks good with a pinky ring. No one. And I say that as amporphous blob covered in hair, sweat and regrets.

As for how Leni deals with all this she leans on Lori, calling her twice, but at inportune times: during a golf game and at the library where said phone gets taken. Granted, I don’t get why she didn’t have it on silent, as I would in those situations, but then we wouldn’t have an excuse to include her and it feels necessary to show WHY Lori can’t just help all night or reassure her sister and with Lori gone the panic only intensifies. As I said she gets paralized with fear and later just outright screams.. which attracts an irate Mr Grouse, the next door neighbor who I need to watch more of’s episodes. Including 12 louds of leapin.. I know i’m way overdue on that. This december. Promise.

The old man who yells at Louds helps for a bit, helping get rid of a beach Lynn set up because she’s lynn, she has the consderation of a puppy, but eventually falls in a hole like most great heroes and most elderly people. I mean the ones up the street at the retierment home must fall in once a week. They get out of course because the assitant living mole lets them ride out as it digs into the walls. Or maybe that was just a hallucination. Eventually though the start at her job comes back as she calls the only people she has left for help: Fiona and Miguel, who are at the mall in chairs because of courser they are, and both are confused why she’s so helpless: She’s fantastic at work, she’s kind, confident and smart.. about certain things, she can do this. Besides helping her confidence with this really sweet moment they also give her a good tool for how to use said confdience from work: just treat her siblings as customers. It’s also a nice call back to how we’ve seen Leni learn way back in season 1 during “Driving Miss Hazy” we’ve seen that she can have troulble grasping things, but when you put it in terms she understands, like fashion, or shopping, or in this case helping customers with their issues, she snaps into it. She learns at her own pace in her own way, it’s why I think sh’es neurotypical, and possibly ont he spectrum like yours truly: while her stupidity isn’t part of that the unqiue way she processes things has me supscious. either way it works.

So with a new strategy Leni.. literally adresses them like shoppers, which is comedy gold. However it’s a valid strategy: besides the visualation part by getting them to form a line, instead of trying to handle 2 or 3 problems at once she simply handles them one at a time: She scares the skunk off again, shuts down both competing clubs in the older kids room, uses water to take out lisa’s universal solvant, gives Lola and Lynn 5 bucks instead of just cutting a ten in half this time, and in the sweetest moment of the episode, reads Clyde and Lincoln a childrens book to clam them down. Sure it’s a bit funny but their genuine relief and all threes adorable expressions really melt the heart.

Leni finally wins, just as her parents get home and congradulate her, Rita’s faith not misplaced. While Rita probably knew it’d be an adjustment, and frankly should’ve prepped her sooner, she knows her daughter and knows waht sh’es caapable of. Also Senior brought home meet and gives leni a turkey leg who gives it to the old man who now lives in a hole inside their house. That’s his home now. Mr Grouse is just there now. Or I wish he was. But I guess you can’t always get what you want epsecially if it’s an old man living in a hole in the loud’s living room. Someday. Final thoughts for The Boss Maybe: As you could easily tell I loved this one. Funny with a hell of an emotional core, and with great pacing espeially for a loud house episode, this was a joy to watch and easily one of the best episodes the show has done. Just a funny, breezy watch with a lot of subtext, intetional or not, regarding what we’ve seen of Leni and honestly i’m going to go with intetional. It felt really rooted in who Leni is, her relationship with lori, and her work without hitting you over the head with it. It just all flowed really well and made for a hard one to top for the season this early. I’m impressed and it gives me hope for the rest of the season.

Family Bonding

This one was.. okay. As i’ve learned the hard way from doing Amphibia when an episodes just okay it’s best to breeze through it.. but I can give it this. While it’s mostly a standard loud house episode the ending.. wasn’t predictable. That’s for sure. I mean.. it left me with only one thought really...

But i’m getting ahead of myself. The episode’s plot is standard for the most part: Lincoln’s obessed with a new spy comic book about a james bond expy.. okay so that’s what Sterling Archer did besides physical therapy for the three months between his waking up and Season 11. Anyways they soon get more exciting news from Lynn. New Neighbors! Before Rita can stop them, the rest of her family tramples over her and goes to make their aqunatince and of course be a bit overbaring with it before Rita rushes in with a spray bottle to spray them like a bad dog because frankly when your dealing with 11 people most of whom are really impuslive, sometimes dog training just works. You try raising eleven kids and see how long before your brain breaks. Anyways after introductions and the mom turning down cherry pie, you monsters, lincoln sees strange flashing lights and a device and is convinced something is up and unable to convince his family and on a spy kick, recurits clyde. Now why he dosen’t call on Stella and Zach I dunno. And yes I said Zach and not my boy Liam. I have my reasons: Stella, besides being a faviorite of mine, is a tech whiz as shown in one of the comics and in the cookie episode, and Liam is already a paranoid conspiracy nut and as we’ve seen with Dale Gribble, they can be suprisingly useful. I mean Dale is not the best on common sense but he knows goverment bilaws in and out, is skilled with a gun or a bag of pocket sand, and has danny trejo’s octavio, whose basically danny but as hired muscle instead of a master actor, on speed dial. I mean we don’t know if Zach dosen’t have a danny trejo on speed dial or not. We never asked. As for the other two while I love LIam, spying just dosen’t seem to be in his sizeable skill set and Rusty.. well rusty’s about as subtle as a man covered in screeching cats he glued to himself blowing an airhorn, while screaming the script to a micheal bay movie while doing the explosion noises himself.. which Rusty has probbbly done. The real thing i’m getting at is I don’t get why, outside of Clyde and LIam, the writers think when LIncoln has an epiosde it either just needs ot be ClyncolnMcCloud or the ENTIRE group, when one or two would do the trick. YOu CAN seperate them out. People do hang out with diffrent friends at diffrent times. I know the show’s grasp on reality is tenous at best, we got to that last week with the whole one teacher for core classes thing with schooled and this week.. again we’ll get to it in a second, but friends DO hang out seperate. We saw each member of the Lincrew, minus stella because she didn’t exist yet, doing their own thing in Racing Hearts. It’s not that complicated. It’s hard to flesht hem out when their used as one solid unit and not unresonable to just use one or two. it’s a lesson I hope the show learns eventually and hope it’s sister show learns too.

But yeah our dynamic duo spend the episode as youd’ expect; unraveling conspriacies and stalking the new family, though there are some funny bits. Besides Rita squirting her family like a cat or a dog, we have flip getting half his face shaved by a survelince drone and okay maybe just those two things. not bad bits, but the general concept of them roleplaying into mischief.. has been done before. The show’s done the detective bit before and the spy trappings really don’t change that. And you CAN do a good spy takeoff episode, this one just sin’t it and feels like your standard LIncoln and Clyde messaround with tuxedos. Which to be fair are pretty awesome but still. It’s pretty flat. The climax though? I’ll give it this.. it’s pretty entertainngi if also 100% what exactly the fuck. So our heroes are naturally caught sneaking into the neighbors house and its eems they were wrong, etc etc, exactly what we expected the new kid will hang around.. at least we have a new character. Instead.. LIncoln accidently hits a knob and unveils a panel

So yeah... turns out the new family ARE spies, just for Peach Growers and plan to wipe out all cherries in royal woods. Yup.. look I know this universe is patently insane but even for loud house, even with all of lisa’s super science... even with the slapstick but this is just.. nuts. Like i’m fine with suspending my disbelif, this show is a goofy comedy, but this is a bit much. I LOVE it for being nuts but only in a “what on spagehtti monster’s green earth were you thinking”. I get swinging for the fences but Lincoln getting into a fight with a bunch of spies after playing spy, well beating them with slapsticks and stopping their plot to elmitie cherries..t his isn’t Kids Next Door. This just.. dosen’t work. Jeff Goldblum tell em why, my brains too broken to articulate this anymore

Yeah that. It’s just a weird climax and ends iwth LIncoln vetting the new neighbors.. which does it include girl jordon? Did they just write her out? If so why? Fans liked her, you can have more than one female character in Lincoln’s friend group. Zach is replacable. You can give me whatever the fuck this was, but not an intresting friend for him who has personality already. I get 50% chad but not your decision making. Gah.

Final Thoughts for .. this. one This one really didn’t work. Besides the ending just not fitting the series specific brand of ludicrous, I mentioned KND for a reason as it made this sort of plot work fine by having it’s whole unvierse be really fucking weird and specific, it’s mostly just okay. We’ve seen this before.. well okay I haven’t watched many of the Lincoln and Clyde messarounds, but the formula’s about the same. And that dosen’t work. For one you have a HUGE swath of new possiblities: A new school, Chandler coming back, new teachers and faculity, a new principal, and Lynn and LIncoln being in the same school, and you instead just.. retread the same crap. you have 4 of lincoln’s friends other than clyde to use but don’t let them in on the fun. And most agrivating to me you move new neighbors into the neighborhood while neglecting some of your old supporting cast and have them be villians of the week instead of adding someone NEW to the neighborhood. Give one of the other kids a new friend, or give lincoln a new friend to add to his group and replace liam, shake up the dynamic with him and clyde bya dding a third or, most obviously move one of his friends INTO the neighborhood, most obviously stella since you spent so much time building her up then have her addition affect Lincoln and Clyde. Sure we’ve had an episdoe of one of his friends getting in the way of them before, but this would be diffrent. This episode is just.. not great and was a waste of my time, espespcailly after following such a stellar episode. It’s probablyt he first genuinely bad episode i’ve covered on this blog. Now that probably won’t stand, i’ve seen genuiley worse but.. as a wise penguin once said.

One last note. That Young Dylan graphic is really obnoxiou and obtrusive. It’s the second most obnoxious thing i’ve seen on this network.

youtube

I”m out for this week. If you want more check out my Amphibia reviews, as I just finished a new one today, my other loud house reviews in the newly minted nickelodeon tab or other stuff on my other tabs, send me an ask for reviews you’d like to see or pay me to review whatver you want for 5 bucks via direct message. And check this blog Monday for the return of weekly Ducktales coverage, and next weekend for the next episode of loud house, and throughotu the week for more reviews. Until we meet again, GO TEAM VENTURE!. Play us out Mary Kate Wiles. If nothing else this episode let me use this song.

youtube

19 notes · View notes

fbdo1986 · 3 years

Note

What are your Succession sibling headcanons for when they were growing up?

omg!!! gd i have. WAY too many feelings about this actually. hm im not sure quite how to group these but i have a few about them in school and then other random ones! i’m gonna keep this quite lighthearted if i can even though sometimes its hard to given what actually happens in succession. i think i’ll group this by character!

shiv: i think miss siobhan had mixed feelings about school growing up. something tells me that she’d be really dedicated one week and then have a “screw it” attitude the next. i also think she tried really hard (similar to connor) to get good grades and even tried to become student body president (and failed unfortunately) to impress logan but it never did anything for him. i think shiv tried really hard to be tough growing up, only really softening when someone made her put her guard down. (i think connor was the figure who did this the most, and he did the same thing for kendall when it was just the two of them and then baby shiv growing up). i also think shiv was the type to sneak out when she was a teenager and wouldn’t get caught. well, she Would get caught by her brothers but she’d have to bargain with roman to keep a secret for her. (Yes i have a headcanon that connor and kendall shared a room and roman and shiv had rooms neighboring each other so. whatever happens could be heard by all of the siblings, so roman ALWAYS heard when shiv would sneak back in and would immediately confront her about it. kendall always left well enough alone and tried to sleep through it tbh because he knew connor would handle it. sweet boy kenny has been through enough).

connor: man, if you’ve read my fic about kendall and connor’s dynamic growing up you know how idealized my one version of connor is in my head. (also you should read that i have a few hcs that pop up in that). so these hcs will kinda be a mix of how i see him growing up in canon/my more “connor is normal” idealized version of him. (granted, it CANNOT be denied that even in canon connor is a really devoted and protective brother. this is fact). i think that connor was kinda isolated socially growing up. i think in school he always tried to impress people to make friends, but it kinda always fell flat. i think this is a good explanation as to why he kinda becomes kendall’s confidant/protector growing up and why they had such a strong bond, because he didn’t really feel like he connected with anyone else/really felt like he belonged anywhere without putting on an act. being the eldest i think even before kendall was born connor just wanted to make logan proud so he tried really hard in school, but it wasn’t really worth the effort ultimately. i do think he was really smart anyway so he kept performing well despite knowing it didn’t mean all that much. i think i’ve also decided that out of all the roy siblings that connor was the most athletic and played a lot of baseball growing up! i think he played some tennis too but ultimately kendall got MUCH better at it than he was.

kendall: i think this is a good time to bring up stewy! i don’t actually know if they were friends before college but. kendall and stewy give me childhood best friend energy. i think kendall was a really quiet and sensitive kid, and i feel like he had a tendency to get lost in a lot of friendships because he could never tell if the bonds were genuine or not. i think he kinda skated along, making himself take the brunt of a joke if necessary. but then he met stewy! and it finally felt like kendall could actually be himself around someone and not try to make himself any smaller. as far as ken’s childhood goes i think he inherited connor’s protectiveness and kinda kept a pact with him that he would take care of and look after shiv and roman while they were growing up. so i think (especially with roman) he was really close with them as a kid, and his more lighthearted banter and interactions with roman that we see as adults comes from that! i think they had a lot of friendly competition between them (whereas shiv and roman’s competition was REAL) and even roman being younger than him because of how sensitive kendall seemed to be, sometimes this translated to roman letting kendall beat him in things that he could beat ken at if he wanted to. also! i think kendall drew a lot as a kid! he kinda grew out of the habit as he got older unfortunately.

roman: honestly, i think out of all the siblings, roman had the easiest time socially. i think he has this innate sense of confidence that drew people to him, so i think he always kinda got used to a few people around him at once. that being said, kinda like ken, he did sometimes feel a bit disconnected from the connections he had. i think roman was the closest to shiv and ken growing up (i think roman and shiv have such an uncanny twin-like tendency to annoy one another and squabble), but i think he rarely felt like he was able to connect with them emotionally (not any fault of theirs, though, he’s a lot more guarded like shiv is) and didn’t really have an emotional outlet like the one connor gave kendall or the one he later provides for shiv. but i kinda think he’s always kinda struggled with letting people in fully, so i think roman had a tendency to have superficial romantic relationships as a teenager and would also get kinda spooked if his partner didn’t really warn him before they started confiding in him. that being said, i think he would occasionally lean on his friends for emotional support, way before he would ever confide in his siblings.

bonus: because these always get to me here’s some nicknames i think the kids had for each other growing up. i ABSOLUTELY think kendall called connor connie when he was little because he couldn’t say connor, and it’s something that shiv did too that they all occasionally use for fondness’s sake. (i mean, all of these are for fondness sake, they’re all adults who can Definitely pronounce each others names, but hey, it’s sweet)! but it IS used less common than just calling him con, so i think it’s definitely (esp for kendall) pulled out during heartfelt moments between the two. the same thing is why the countless nicknames for roman exist (ro, roro, romey), but i think bc kendall and connor are more sentimental its why they’re more likely to call him that as adults and kept it up well into childhood. i think because connor is sappy he called shiv shivy and pinky when she was growing up even when he was a teenager because he felt like it suited her and thought it was cute! idk, i think it made sense to call a baby overly cutesy nicknames. (but YES i think pinky originated from connor and not from logan and it was something logan kept with when connor went away to school so shiv only really remembers it as something her dad did... but no! fuck logan! sibling rights <3)

#succession #gosh thank you for this anon i enjoyed this #i ALSO think one of them played a musical instrument growing up but i cant decide. maybe it should be shiv. i think itd be funny if this #tiny girl one day decided she wanted to play like. the cello or something.#also all the kids played chess growing up! courtesy of connors.... mediocre teaching skills

14 notes · View notes

surveys-at-your-service · 3 years

Text

Survey #347

“lay your head down, child / i won’t let the bogeyman come / count the bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums”

Have you ever watched a whole hour long infomercial? Ha, Girt and I have one day when he was hanging out. It was about a vacuum, to be precise. Do you tend to cave into peer pressure? No. Do you think it's attractive for a man to wear eyeliner? Yeah. Are you listening to music currently? Yeah, it's this version of Manson's "Lunchbox" that I hadn't heard before. Have you ever done something you once thought you'd be too chicken to do? Yeah, like going on this one ride at a fair. Y'know, the kind that slowly brings you way up and abruptly drops you. What's your relationship to the child you’re around most? They're my nieces and nephew. Have you ever had an illegal substance in your blood stream? No. What is the worst thing that has ever happened to your hair? More than once, back when I had long hair, it would get so knotted from neglect that I'd brush out just... giant clumps of hair. The joys of depression, right? It's honestly part of the reason I cut it all off, and it's something I seriously recommend for people who struggle with brushing their hair. What do you think about cats? I adore them. Who do you want with you when you're afraid? Absolutely my mom. Who might as well just be your sibling? Ha, Sara. We're just so remarkably similar, and even when we first met in person, we clicked like it was nothing. Would you ever consider working for the government? No; I'm not working with corrupt, lying motherfuckers. What is the weirdest thing you have ever witnessed a sibling doing? Well, your sister "sleepwalking" or whatever she was actually doing and grabbing a knife she'd hidden under her mattress to creep towards her then-boyfriend was beyond just "weird." Your first best friend's name? Brianna. How do you act when you're uncomfortable? "Anxious, impatient, and fidgety." <<<< Same. It's very obvious I want to get out of the situation. What bug would you like to be extinct? Do wasps do like... anything for the environment? I don't want to give a definite answer here that ends up being ignorant, because I appreciate bugs that are even just a regular food source for more vital creatures like spiders, but I don't know a damn thing wasps do that are beneficial. They just kill bees, from what I know. Do you know anyone other than a cop who has ever owned a cop car? No. Have you ever felt fire? I mean, I've never directly touched fire, no. What would you do if your first love asked you back out? I REALLY DON'T WANT TO PICTURE THIS. Do you know anyone that is a lesbian? Yeah. What are your thoughts on roleplaying games? I think they're fun. Do you want to have a bachelor/bachelorette party before you get married? So, true story, I don't even know what those entail exactly. But considering how few friends I have, I probably wouldn't. Ever been texted by mistake and played along & acted like you knew them? No. Would you ever get a name tattooed on you? Noooo sir. Do your parents dress like they’re years younger? Does it gross you out? They don't, but it wouldn't gross me out...? They can dress however they damn well please. Obsession from childhood? Dinosaurs and Spyro probably top the list. Favorite activity to do in warm weather? Just swim, really. I hate warm weather. Favorite activity to do in cold weather? If there's snow, take pictures. If it's just cold, then I like to just stay inside and bundle up in bed. Five songs to describe you? I don't know five, but I know a few I resonate with: "Get Up" by Mother Mother, "That's What You Get" by Paramore, uhhh then idk. Best way for someone to bond with you? Hm. Probably just like... talk about life, like our stories and things we've been through, both good and bad. Just being mutually vulnerable makes me feel connected to people. I like bonding via music, too, and I find it pretty exciting to share songs and, once again, go deeper and share what they mean to you, etc. etc. In summary, I just like getting to know a person at their core. What is the first meme you remember seeing? Hell if I know. Lemonade or tea? Lemonade, by a landslide. Sci-fi, fantasy, or superheroes? Fantasy. Favorite type of cheese? American. If you were a video game character, what would your catchphrase be? I relate very deeply to Henry Townshend from SH4 with saying "what the hell?" about literally everything. If you were an anime character, what genre of anime would it be? I'unno. Character you relate to? Since watching a playthrough of the game the first time, I've related to Max Caulfield from Life is Strange very deeply. An awkward photographer that cares a lot for people. Favorite website from your childhood? Webkinz. Least favorite flavor of food or drink? Grape, usually. Or orange. Favorite potato food? French fries. PC or console gaming? I prefer console games. Writing or drawing? Shit man, why you gotta make me choose? I feel much more satisfaction after drawing something I'm proud of, but I write way more. Who would you put before everyone else? My mom. How many phone numbers do you have memorized? Literally none. Do you get motion sickness? No. Have you ever been on a cruise? No. Have you ever bailed a friend out of jail? No. Have you ever won anything from a radio station? No. What do you do when you go to the beach? Swim for a while and then sit under the tent or whatever we brought and think about how ready I am to go home and get out of the heat. How many pillows are on your bed? Two. Do you like pickles? Yeah. Do you like camping? I've never been *legit* camping; Dad would just sometimes set up the tent in the yard and he and my sisters and I would sleep out there. I LOVED that as a kiddo. I think I'd enjoy like, one night of actual camping, so long as I have my camera and phone. My technology dependence would probably get me by Day #2, lol. Have you ever ridden a motorcycle? No, and I don't plan to. Wrecking in one of those can fuck you the hell up. Even with a helmet, just honestly, it seems... pretty stupid to put yourself at THAT incredible a risk. Have you ever had plastic surgery? No. Were you ever sent to the principal’s office as a kid? I don't think so... but maybe once? I have this super faint memory of being in the office, but maybe I was bringing them something from my teacher? That sounds about right. Have you ever used a slingshot? No. Have you ever driven an electric car? No. Do you live in an area that is prone to tornadoes? They happen here, but I wouldn't say we're "prone" to them. We get tornado watches/warnings a lot when we have summer storms, but it's seldom they actually occur, and it's even rarer for them to be noteworthy at all. What breed was the last dog you saw? One of our neighbors has a German Shepherd she walks a lot. How long have your parents been together (or how long were they together, if they no longer are): I wanna say around or over 20 years? I don't know. What 5 words best describe your mother’s personality? Loving, welcoming, resilient, selfless, and strong. Do you know any transgender people? Yes. Have you ever had a parrot sit on your shoulder? No, but that'd be cool. In the morning, do you eat breakfast first or brush your teeth first? I eat first. What’s something you’ve been struggling with lately? A number of things, but my weight's the real problem right now. All the weight loss progress I once made has almost been entirely erased... and I'm extremely, extremely upset about it. I'd rather move onto the next question than elaborate on this bullshit. Do you carry condoms? No, I don't have a reason to. Would you date someone with braces? Yes. Do you think people look up to you? God no. How often do you have trouble sleeping at night? Pretty much every night. Any vacations planned? No. We've never been able to afford vacations. Who were you last in a car with? My mom. Did you ever watch Sailor Moon? Yeah. My older sister was ooooobsessed. She even had the little toy wand and would dance to the theme when it came on. What do you want for Christmas? Well, it's rather early to think of that, but if I had to pull out an answer right now, it'd probably be either Venus' new terrarium (if I don't already have it) or supplies for it. If by some miracle I've been able to get everything I wanted for it by then, I would seriously love a hognose snake. If you had to get glasses would you wear contacts? I've worn glasses for many years, and I can live with it. I'd prefer contacts so I can get an undereye dermal piercing, but they're just too tedious for me. Best party you’ve ever been to? Maybe a big party my friend Summer had for one of her birthdays many years ago. We played lots of games like darts and stuff while listening to good music and just hanging out. Have you ever been surfing? I have not. Are you thinking about asking anyone out? No. Pink lemonade or regular lemonade? Pink. Chocolate or strawberry milk? Chocolate, for sure. I hate strawberry milk. Are you subscribed to a lot of channels on YouTube? Oh yes. Do you wish you had a better phone? Yeah. I mean, my phone is fine, but I particularly dislike the poor camera quality. Do you find texting fun? I'm officially becoming an old woman in that I don't really like texting anymore, but only because I make way too many typos. I would much rather type via an actual keyboard. Do you have any friends who have had twins? No. Do you have any past mistakes you’ve made that haunt you every day? Yes. Seriously. Are you bothered by something someone said to you years ago? Things especially Bryar and Colleen have said to me are probably going to die with me.

#survey #surveys #questions #lyrics: ''pet'' by a perfect circle

2 notes · View notes

sonickedtrowel · 3 years

Note

1, 2, 4, 10, 20!!

Tell us about your current project(s) – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?

Oh boy so I’m sure I must have mentioned it at some point but I won’t turn down a chance to ramble about it again: me and @regalpotato are working on a Day of the Doctor rewrite and I’m pretty psyched about it! Basically, Eight is there rather than War (although War does make an appearance!) and also River is there, because Duh, and there are other Things going on that are different from the episode/novel, but that’s spoilers and also still partially cooking in my brain, lol. It’s at 11k-ish right now but still pretty early in the story, too early to probably say what I will love most. But I’m having a ton of fun with it, especially the dialogue, and currently torturing Ten in every way I can think of. You know, lovingly torturing. For the most part.

That is the really big thing I’m excited about, but I do still have two prompts left from a couple weeks back (I didn’t forget you, anons!) and those are milling around in my head too waiting for inspiration to strike. 2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

No secret that I love writing multi-Doctor / River stories, and in fact having somewhat recently finished an 8 and 11 / River fic I will have to be on my toes to not repeat myself too much haha. But I just love getting everyone together and letting them yell at each other for a while - the best honestly - and then later we get Revealing Conversations about Feelings, as well as POV changing chapters. Not to overhype it but! I think it’s gonna be fun! Putting the rest under a cut because I am long-winded lol.

4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)

Hmmm I’ll pick something I like from the WIP that’s all my writing - this is from Night of the Doctor with Eight and Ohila, but it’s diverged from the original script here and iirc pretty much all new dialogue for Eight. I don’t normally write this sort of Doctor speech because I’m usually doing romance, but I can hear Paul McGann righteously shouting/soliloquizing in my head so I’m pretty happy with it: *** “What would you have me do?” the Doctor hissed. “What does your broken prophecy foretell? That I become one more loyal soldier in Gallifrey’s glorious army? I can join this fight and take a thousand lives, die a thousand deaths, and this war will still go on. The universe doesn’t need another soldier!” “Not a soldier,” said the Sister, “a warrior, with the power you’ve refused to wield. You could have destroyed the Daleks before they were even created.” “Yes, I could have done. And I didn’t, because I have no right! Whatever it is you think you can turn me into, Sister, you’ll continue to be disappointed. Because there’s one person who is always needed in a war: a good doctor, willing to help whomever they can. No matter if they’re despised, or called traitor— no matter who they lose or how many times they fail! There will always be more lives to save, and I’ll be there, helping, wherever I can. I only hope I’m strong enough to carry on doing it half as well as another doctor I knew.” ***

(Yes of course we have Liv Chenka references!) 10. How would you describe your writing process? It takes me forever to get ideas, but once I have a sort of general amorphous direction for the story and an emotional starting point for the characters, I just jump in. And then I keep getting shower thoughts about more and more stuff happening and what was supposed to just be some fun fluff starts growing a plot and getting wildly out of hand and this is just my life. I am very much not in control. 20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?) Ohhhh this is such a good question! Definitely going with There is a love I reminisce because there’s a lot going on under the surface in that fic and not all of it stated super explicitly. So um, huge spoilers below if you haven’t read it!

Manhattan and Trenzalore (both times) are essentially retconned, through a combination of River’s innate abilities and Eleven going around the timeline trying to do better after being confronted with his shortcomings in TNOTD. How the Doctor survived Utah is explained and it’s not because he was in a stupid robot. It spawns an implied post-Library reunion with River, Eleven and the Doctor’s oft-referenced and never quantified or named children from Gallifrey. It implies a different resolution to the Hybrid thing and an alternate series 10. And of course it uses BF’s far-superior Ravenous 4 plot twist to preemptively annihilate the timeless children crap, and a combination of Ravenous 4 and Doom Coalition 4 to make River basically a time goddess. But maybe my favorite thing was giving life to this headcanon of mine. IT CANNOT BE REFUTED! They’ve never said ANYTHING specific about his family so it’s free real estate baby!

*** “Yes, sorry to harp on about this, honey, but I think we can discuss the regeneration semantics later,” River cut in. “You’re saying I came back from your future to your distant past and just… stayed?”

“Well… yes, I think so. There were certain things we couldn’t discuss. I had always just assumed that I’d reached the end of my last regeneration and you weren’t too pleased with that, so… You know, describing it now, it does seem very irresponsible. But I don’t recall having any complaints.”

“No, I shouldn’t think you would.” River smiled, but her mind was racing. “How would that even work? Eventually, we’d come back round to when we first met on your end, and what, I wipe myself out of your memories? Selectively, for your entire lifetime? I think you might notice a little thing like that.”

“I suppose you must have had a plan for it, but I can’t remember it now. I just remember the two of us, together through the centuries.” He smiled fondly and River felt like the ache in her chest would strangle her. “I remember our family.”

“Our what?” she cried, as the older Doctor had a sudden choking fit.

“Our family. Our children and…” Dread slowly dawned on the young Doctor’s sweet face. “Oh, please, no,” he whispered. “Don’t tell me they’re… No, this happened! It happened in both versions of my memories!” He looked to his older self, panic-stricken. “Tell me you remember!”

“You had a family,” River soothed, as Babyface stumbled over his own tongue. “It just wasn’t with me.”

“What?” he laughed incredulously. “Who else would it be?”

“Your first wife, sweetie. I’m your second. Well, the second one that counts.”

“No, that’s— I’m sorry, that’s nonsense.” He turned to the older Doctor again. “You can’t tell her, is that it? Because she hasn’t done it yet? I’m sorry, River, maybe I shouldn’t have—”

“No!” Babyface shouted, finally collecting himself. “Yes, we— I had a family, on Gallifrey, before I ever left. River wasn’t there, obviously, because that’s not how anything works!”

“Who, then?” the young Doctor demanded. “Who was your first wife?”

“I— I— she was—” He opened and closed his mouth silently, looking increasingly horrified.

“You don’t like to talk about it,” River explained. “She passed away.”

“Yes, but just between me and myself,” the young Doctor pressed on with an utter absence of tact that made it easier than ever to see this was the same man before her, “who was she? And your children, what were their names?”

River hesitated, watching as the older Doctor wrestled with himself. These were details not even she had ever asked him for. She knew the general outline, of course, and that was enough. It was a hurt so deep and so impossibly ancient, she couldn’t truly imagine how distant it must be for him now. No sense in forcing him to open that door and dwell on it again.

“I, I don’t,” he finally muttered, looking almost fearful, “I don’t talk about it. I don’t think about it.”

“You’ve forgotten them,” the young Doctor said, voice low and furious. “How could you?”

“S-Susan,” Babyface stammered, wide-eyed. “I left Gallifrey with Susan.”

A relieved smile flashed across the young Doctor’s face. “And where did you suppose she came from?”

“No, she… I don’t…” Chair legs scraped abruptly across the tile as the older Doctor bolted up from his seat, white-faced, and stumbled back from the table.

“Doctor?” River stood, her hearts racing.

His eyes met hers for a split second, the strange terror in them sending a chill through her, and then he was gone like a shot.

“Doctor!” She made to chase after him, but his younger version was still clasping her hand.

“He’ll be fine,” he reassured her. “He’s just working it out.”

“Working it out?” she repeated, too stunned to reach out and grasp for the obvious. She turned to him in a daze. He smiled, and for a fleeting moment she fancied she could see the long contentment of a life she’d never dared dream of, etched in each little line on his older, younger face.

“I told you, River.” He laid his other hand over hers, warm and steady. “It was always you.” ***

#thank you so much for these they were great questions!!#i need to like shut up though these are such long answers lollllll #amillionmillionvoices

4 notes · View notes

abookalypse · 4 years

Text

Lord of Chaos (Wheel of Time, #6) by Robert Jordan

Warning: This “review” contains major spoilers and major rant. If you’re queer, feel free to read on, I want to know what you think. If you’re straight, read at your own risk.

Rating: 8.9/10

I have way too many things to say. But let’s start off with

Nynaeve and Elayne

I mean, is there anything else to say other than they’re fucking awesome? I loved these two in the previous book, with Tanchico and Moghedien, with Birgitte and Logain. I loved every part of it.

And now, with Elayne having figured out how to make an a’dam and sul’dam, and Nynaeve having Healed Suian and Leane, I love them even more. Nynaeve remains to be my favorite character in this series so far. She's unbelievably strong but she's also stupidly stubborn and she acts so childish all the time. She's so afraid of everything. There's so many things I want to change about her and yet it feels proper that she stays exactly the way she is (at least for now). I can’t wait for her to finally get rid of her block (if ever).

And yes, I headcanon her as queer, because who gets flustered around women like that all the time? Queer women, that’s who. (Also because I just think Birgitte and Nynaeve have great chemistry, especially after Birgitte decided she’d tease Nynaeve every chance she gets after the events from the last book.)

I think the only reason I don’t like Elayne as well as I do Nynaeve is because she thinks about Rand all the time. I mean, I know Nynaeve thinks about Lan, too, but I could make more sense of that because they did spend some time together, from the Two Rivers all the way to Tar Valon. But with Elayne and Rand, it’s a bit more frustrating because I really don’t remember any moment between the two that coded as romantic. Rand and Aviendha made more sense, and after reading this book, Rand and Min as well.

Anyway, I also see Elayne as queer, mainly because of Aviendha (and sometimes Birgitte, but I acknowledge that it was mentioned in the book that Elayne is like a little sister to Birgitte; it sucks, thank you very much).

Elayne and Nynaeve is my favorite duo.

Alanna and Rand

I’m not gonna lie, I chortled a little when I got to the moment where Alanna bonded Rand. But now that I know that that was considered rape (and it does make sense for it to be considered rape), I feel sort of bad. I guess rape really is a power thing more than a sex thing.

I actually kind of want to see an apology from Alanna now, even though I don’t really sympathize with Rand at all about anything ever. And while my first reaction to the bonding was well Alanna’s going to die soon I guess, towards the end I was more like I hope Alanna apologizes and maybe Rand can be her Warder for a long time. But then I guess Elayne wants Rand as her Warder still.

Morgase

I had high expectations for Morgase in the previous book, so I guess I was kind of disappointed to see how it went with her plan. It would be interesting to see how things go from here.

That’s really all I have to say about her, but I still gave her a special section to indicate that I really, really expected more from this story line. I’m looking forward to see Morgase’s queen qualities.

Egwene

I’m so proud of Egwene for some reason. She really came out of that Wise Ones training stronger and braver than ever. I guess her progress wasn’t as noticeable until she was actually around non-Aiel people again.

I was kind of worried about Egwene being Amyrlin, because I thought she’d be used more like a puppet more than anything, but I underestimated her. I mean, I guess Suian could still use her as a puppet, seeing as Suian still wants some power but she’s currently a lot weaker than she was before being stilled, but I’m just... so, so proud of Egwene.

(As I was reading this book, I actually thought Nynaeve would be Amyrlin someday. I could honestly see Nynaeve as a younger, less mature version of Suian. They both have bad temper, and Suian can be really stubborn as well.)

But also, can we talk about that Amyrlin Seat ritual? Like with the Aes Sedai showing their boobs as proof that they’re women? I mean, sounds pretty transphobic to me, but then I guess trans people do not exist in this book (I thought Aran’gar/Halima could be trans, but it’s equally as likely that Aran’gar is really just a man using saidin to disguise as a woman). The whole ordeal still seems pretty yikes though. I did not like it one bit. I hope they don’t put that on the show. They honestly could do without it.

Perrin and Faile

Perrin was my first favorite character from this book. I just think it’s cool that he can talk to wolves. And the whole Two Rivers against Trollocs thing was awesome too. He did fall flat in this book though. He’s almost always talking about Faile, which I get, because I also love women, but it’s super tiring after a while.

As for Faile, I didn’t expect her to be so... Perrin-crazy. When she was first introduced in the story, I kind of expected her to be this awesome warrior lady who will fight alongside men in battle, and I guess to some extent she is that, albeit a little toned down. It’s perfectly okay for her to be all about Perrin and their marriage, I have nothing against that, but also I just wish she was more than that, you know? (Also, Maidens teaching Faile handtalk? Interesting.)

Min

Similar to Faile, I also expected Min to be this badass warrior lady (yes, I am obsessed with badass ladies who can wield swords or knives or spears). And, again, it’s perfectly okay that she is not, but I want more than that, okay?

Min’s sole role in this book was to get to Rand and show him she loves him and tell him three women will love him and that the three women will be okay with it (and each other) eventually. And also help him through her visions, of course. Min was a little underwhelming in this book (but I admit she’s never actually been a person of interest in this story, I just thought that she would be. I guess I will be expecting less from here on out).

What I’m interested to see, however, is Min’s little relationship between Aiel Wise Ones. They seem to have taken a liking to her.

Others

Yeah, all the others are not getting a special section. Mat was alright, still stubborn as ever. The whole ‘Elayne goading Mat so he could allow her to study his little amulet’ was funny. Thom and Juilin, not very present throughout the book. Thom and Elayne’s relationship is still weird, very un-Elayne-like.

Maidens are still awesome (like I said, women with spears).

I guess that’s all? The ending was overwhelming, for sure. The first nine Aes Sedai to kneel to Rand al’Thor. This ‘Daughter of the Nine Moons’ thing. Aran’gar letting Moghedien go. Egwene letting Logain escape. A Darkfriend (or one of Moghedien’s little followers) in Ebou Dar following Elayne and Nynaeve around?

Looking forward to reading the next book.

#lord of chaos #wheel of time #robert jordan #rand al'thor #egwene al'vere #nynaeve al'meara #elayne trakand #birgitte #mat cauthon #perrin aybara #books #book review

9 notes · View notes

missholoska · 4 years

Note

How would the Underswap MH characters react if they met their Undertale and Classicswap counterparts?

seeing as I took ages just to answer this it’d take even longer to draw for every character, so I hope text is fine :’D

(also just a general reminder that I’m not interested in making Swap MH interact with the whole AU multiverse concept, these are just for fun and not canon!)

Swap MH Chara & UT Chara:

I uh, actually don’t know enough about Canonswap Chara or Frisk to answer for either of them, and Swap MH Chara couldn’t meet UT Chara without also meeting UT Frisk and vice versa due to the dead narrator ghost thing, so! both Charas and both Frisks:

UT Frisk would be excited to meet a version of Chara who’s actually alive! Swap MH Chara would have a quieter “huh, cool” reaction, but I don’t think it’d take long for them to start treating each other like siblings :’>

Swap MH Chara would probably be mildly unsettled to know that they died in another universe, but I think they’d get along nonetheless. UT Chara would just be glad to know that there’s a universe where they get to live and grow up, and they have an intellectual discussion about the best chocolate brands.

likewise UT Frisk would be a little upset to hear that their counterpart is dead, but Swap MH Frisk’s reaction? ecstatic to see a version of them who’s alive. they possess Swap MH Chara just to be like “it’s me!! :D!!!”

finally the ghost kids: they’d likely have a fairly morbid talk comparing the differences between their monster families and their deaths, but after that they’re pretty chill buds. and then when UT Frisk and Swap MH Chara take back control of their bodies they’re both just like “……wow geez that was sad”

Neptune & UT Sans:

already drawn Neptune and Canonswap Sans meeting, so I’ll just stick with UT Sans! he and Neptune would absolutely be friends.

UT Sans would be pretty entertained by a version of himself who acts somewhat like his brother but still has their same hobbies and interests. he’d probably struggle to keep up with Neptune’s energy, but they’d definitely have fun sharing horrible puns and talking about space.

Neptune would be a little exasperated by how… stationary UT Sans is, but he can’t be that annoyed when he naps a lot too and that’s how his own brother is half the time. meeting another pun pal and ketchup enthusiast is always a good thing!

UT Sans sees Neptune do his hanging-upside-down-on-a-floating-bone thing that I still haven’t actually drawn him doing yet and feels exhausted just watching him

Noodle & UT Papyrus & Canonswap Papyrus:

UT Papyrus definitely goes googly-eyed with frustration over how Noodle and Canonswap Papyrus are content to just stand around doing nothing, but they can at least develop puzzle ideas together!

considering Noodle is still the younger skelebro and he’s also only a year older than his UT counterpart, he’s a little bewildered by the Older Brother Instincts™ he has for UT Paps.

also Noodle talking to Canonswap Paps: “please don’t blow smoke on my spaghetti thanks”

Axe & UT Alphys & Canonswap Alphys:

I think UT Alphys would have some very conflicting feelings about two versions of herself who are both Strong Ladies and act like the fishy gf she loves, and the fact that she doesn’t like herself enough to like herself. not that she’d act on said feelings at all (there will be no selfcest in my house), just a lot of flustered confusion ahah

both Swap Alphyses are also pretty charmed by how smart UT Alphys is and ask her to teach them some science trivia they can impress their Undynes with

Axe and Canonswap Alphys have a flexing contest. UT Undyne detects A Gun Show in action and joins in. Aaron is there. UT Alphys’ poor little pan heart is too weak for this.

Sci-Fi & UT Undyne & Canonswap Undyne

so much chaos. many explosions. anime speeches. boulders being suplexed. the world is doomed

similarly to the Alphyses, both Swap Undynes are in awe of how cool and strong UT Undyne is, and UT Undyne thinks these two nerdy versions of herself are fun to be around.

Canonswap Undyne is definitely shyest of the bunch and the other two will protecc and attacc for her

Swap MH Happstablook & UT Mettaton & Canonswap Happstablook:

MTT would be very surprised that his counterparts don’t have robot bodies, possibly even a little uncomfortable with the reminder of his past? but he’d at least be glad that Swap MH Happstablook has found happiness remaining a ghost, even if he didn’t himself (not sure what Canonswap Happsta’s feelings are about being a ghost).

ghostly makeovers and dramatic poses. these three will take the fashion world by storm

Swap MH Napstabot & UT Napstablook & Canonswap Napstaton:

UT Blooky is quietly surprised and just a little awed by their robotic counterparts, but honestly Canonswap Napstaton’s personality is probably a bit overwhelming for the other two ahah

they all just lie on the ground feeling like garbage and sharing music tracks together :’>

also I know this is focused on just the napstas but UT Mettaton would be so excited to meet Napstabot/Napstaton and so proud of them being famous and living their dreams and nothing will convince me otherwise

Dandelion & UT Asgore & Canonswap Asgore:

Canonswap Asgore would be the more horrified of the two about UT Asgore and the whole dead kids thing, while Dandelion is more sympathetic since that was his call, too. but I think they’d all get along eventually.

a nice Sad Dad Talk and sharing gardening tips over cups of golden flower tea~

Orchid & UT Toriel & Canonswap Toriel:

UT Toriel’s reaction to two versions of her who did the very thing she left Asgore for would be… uncomfortable. but as long as they meet at a point in time where she’s making progress in forgiving Asgore, she’d be able to tolerate them too.

Orchid would be pretty surprised that UT Asriel was UT Toriel’s son, since she’s an aunt to Swap MH Asriel. and UT Toriel would be sad to hear that both Swap Frisks and Swap Monster Kids died long ago.

…this one got depressing so let’s say they have a happier talk about their respective living human children and it warms UT Toriel’s heart to know Chara and Asriel are alive and well in other universes :’D

Swap MH Temmie & UT Monster Kid & Canonswap Temmie:

UT MK is very confused about this one very angry Temmie, this other sentient plushie Temmie, and how in the world they’re all connected. both Swap Temmies just fiercely ignore this version of themself that gets be alive still and fight like two angry housecats.

“faker?? tem thinks YOU da fake tem round here,,”

Swap MH Asriel & UT Flowey & Canonswap Asriel:

both Swap Asriels just have a fun time being kids and playing together with no idea that they have a third counterpart, because UT Flowey noped out of there immediately.

or alternatively, UT Flowey meeting the Swap Floweys: absolute confusion and intense discomfort. this is the worst possible timeline

#paulgrobe #holoskart asks #underswap mh rambles #I am so sorry for taking 2 weeks to not only answer this but be active on this blog at all oTL #anxiety has been A Ride lately #anyway! I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about the UT cast meeting the swap MH cast before so this was fun thank you #AU interactions still aren't something I wanna focus on but cute character interactions are my lifeblood in general

33 notes · View notes

waltrp · 4 years

Photo

NO, DON’T PUSH US AWAY, HIRO. WE’RE HERE FOR YOU

BIDDI BOPPI BOOP A SPECIAL MESSAGE ADMIN ZULEMA: jill my queen, i know how long you’ve wanted to take up this angel and i’m so happy to finally bestow her to you. your sample for haven was amazing. You know this character inside and out. the love and passion you have translated perfectly into your para and i’m so excited to see what you do with her !! also nag me to finish the cast so i can see cute big hero 6 interactions on the dash lmfao. Please refer to THIS PAGE for your next tasks. We can’t wait to roleplay with you. Welcome to our Ohana xx.

It’s a pleasure to meet you…

Jill, 30, eastern, she/her

My favorite color is purple

My favorite super hero is Kate Bishop/Hawkeye

I’ve seen Parks & Rec so many times I can “watch” the show with my eyes closed

No triggers

Are you positive you can be active?

yes indeed

How did you stumble upon Walt?

we go way back

Did you read the rules?

yup!

Are you sure?

Scuttle

Character you want?

Haven Lemos

Please describe the character for us

When Haven was born, her parents said they could have sworn they gave birth to the sun, so bright and cheerful their little one was. Growing up wasn’t easy for Haven—her family immigrated from Cuba to the United States when she was small. Haven doesn’t remember a life in Cuba, but she knows that everything her parents have done was to secure a better life for their children, and because of that Haven has always admired them.

Haven’s formative years were spent in Miami, Florida, which meant that even though she was away from Cuba, she was able to grow up immersed in her culture even outside of her own home. The older she grew, the more responsibilities fell to Haven, but she took every one of them in stride. With parents that were constantly working to make ends meet, Haven spent much of her free time taking care of her siblings. She may have grown up faster than most kids her age, but Haven never let that get to her. Her optimism and sunny disposition were constant. Haven worked as hard as her parents in every thing she did. She wanted to make them proud and wouldn’t take their sacrifices for granted. One day, Haven hoped to take care of them the way they took care of her.

As a child, most of her peers found her to be strange. Haven has always been quirky and unique, and to top it off she was smart and her favorite subject was science. Most of the other kids couldn’t quite relate—their favorite subject was recess, long after recess stopped being a thing. Haven became one of the top students in science for their school district, and graduated with AP courses in biology, physics, and chemistry (her favorite). To Haven, the logical next stop was the prestigious San Fransokyo Institute of Technology. She wanted to attend the school so desperately, but knew that with her family’s financial situation, it was only a dream. But with a push from her chemistry teacher, Haven’s dreams came true: admission and a full scholarship.

At SFIT, Haven truly came into her own. She was surrounded by students similar to herself, and lucky enough to spend every day learning more about the thing she absolutely loved. Chemistry came naturally to the girl, and it wasn’t long before she was conducting her own experiments, hoping to push the subject to new heights, beyond anything the world already knew. The only thing that made the experience better than she could ever imagine was the group of friends she almost suddenly found herself a part of. She couldn’t imagine how she had managed a life without the four of them. She even had a nickname among the group: Honey Lemon. (You’d have to ask Freddy why.)

It didn’t take long for the crush to develop. Tadashi Hamada was her friend and her equal. How could she not fall in love? The friendship blossomed into a full-on mutual flirtation after the two were paired up for a class project. She loved everyone in their group, but Tadashi easily moved from best friend to boyfriend. Not wanting to disrupt the group dynamic, the duo decided it would be best to keep their relationship quiet for now. The transition started slowly, with stolen kisses when no one else was looking, and much more free time dedicated to simply spending time together. They would lie awake for hours in each other’s dorm rooms, talking about science, their lives, and their futures.

Haven and Tadashi never got the chance to make the possibility of a future between the two of them official. Their junior year, Tadashi helped his brother Hiro enter the SFIT school science fair. Haven had heard so much about Hiro, and the whole group was there to support Tadashi’s younger brother. The kid was only 13, but he may have been the smarted thirteen-year-old Haven had ever known. Even at his young age, Hiro would be a perfect fit at SFIT. When a mysterious fire broke loose at the fair, everything changed. Students, faculty, and visitors all evacuated, and not moments after the last person was out of the building, the whole place exploded. When the smoke cleared in the early hours of the morning, one thing was clear:

Tadashi never made it out of the building.

Haven had never imagined heartbreak to feel this way. A piece of her heart was missing, and Haven was sure it would never feel whole again. How do you move on from such a loss? Whatever Haven felt at the loss of Tadashi, she put on a brave face when around her friends. Haven wasn’t going to stop being the ray of sunlight and optimism she’d always been, for all of them, for herself, and especially for Hiro. The young boy had now lost both his parents and his older brother, and with all the love she had for Tadashi, she was going to look after Hiro as much as she could.

With SFIT destroyed, the students were relocated to Elias. The new location helped Haven move on. She graduated from Walt University with top honors and started working toward building the future she’d talked so often about with Tadashi. Now she’s attending graduate school, working part time in a lab, and working as a teaching assistant in the Walt chemistry department. Tadashi is on her mind constantly. But Haven is looking forward to better days.

Second character choice

n/a

It’s time to see that sample para.

Peach cream smudged cheeks. A thin, careful stroke of liner. Mascara. Waterproof. Uncertainty behind saddened eyes. Hair twisted up into a high bun. The best way to keep it out of her experiments. He’d casually remarked that one day. Still she let wispy bangs hang loose. A generous swipe of neutral toned lipstick. Lips pressed together to distribute the color, and Haven sighed.

Heartbreak wasn’t supposed to happen this way. The love of your life wasn’t supposed to die at twenty-one.

Haven stared at her reflection, and the person staring back at her seemed like a muted version of herself. A neutral face, hair up, black dress, black tights, black everything. Haven fidgeted with the peter pan collar at her neck, the white a stark contrast to everything else. It seemed both so wrong and right at the very same time. She’d never been one to conform, and for that moment she knew that even in his death, Tadashi would be proud. Glasses were carefully replaced to their spot at the bridge of her nose. She’d chosen the translucent pair for this occasion.

A faint drizzle had started as she stepped out from the dorms, and she wondered idly how long the students would be able to stay. There wasn’t exactly a school anymore, but that was a worry for Future Haven. The weather wasn’t a surprise, especially for northern California this time of year, but still it felt appropriate. As if they sky, too, knew of the tragedy they mourned today. Meteorology was a science, after all, and whether they knew it or not, the science community had suffered a great loss.

By the time they reached the cemetery, rain poured from the sky. A fitting welcome, Haven thought, quickly stepping beneath Wyatt’s unfurled umbrella. Hers was a bright pink, a perfect spot of brightness in normal dreary weather, but today that didn’t seem right. Eventually Haven knew she’d put on her bright sunny disposition as often as she could, but right now was a time to let themselves mourn.

The service wasn’t terribly long, expected due to the rain. The plot was near his parents’, and every so often, Haven would look over to glimpse at Hiro. She couldn’t imagine how he was handling things right now. When all was said and done, the group began to disperse, planning to gather afterwards at Aunt Cass’s where friends and family could drink tea and share memories. Their little friend group, now minus a member, lingered, and she’s pretty sure it was Leiko who shoved the umbrella in her hand before they, too, left for the Lucky Cat.

So this was it. Haven Lemos, alone, and Tadashi Hamada’s grave. The plot of grass where he’d lay forever. It wasn’t far from where his parents lay, the three of them at least together again in their final resting place. Haven’s eyes lingered on the headstone, and the hyphen within which Tadashi’s entire life lay. All of his accomplishments, his light, his laughter, his love, her love for him, his brain, his smile, reduced to a punctuation mark, followed by a date past which the two of them would never truly be a couple.

Moments passed until finally Haven knew it was time. Gently she placed her hand atop the marble headstone, caressing it as if she would his face. The ‘I love you’ was implicit; she needn’t speak those three little words aloud. Gathering herself, Haven tightened her grip on the umbrella before heading in the direction of the Lucky Cat Café to meet up with the others at Aunt Cass’s.

This wasn’t the last time she’d see this place.

Anything else, love?

sad breakfast club

#waaccept #disney rp #bio rp #rp #rpg #roleplay #animation rp #city rp #school rp #accepted

2 notes · View notes